The favorites, Hyogo Prefecture, won the 2012 National Interprefectural Men’s Ekiden Championships held in Hiroshima yesterday.

In warm conditions, Hyogo anchor Kensuke Takezawa brought the team home in their 4th ever win, covering the 7 leg 48km course in 2:20:19.

The Hiroshima team, despite a stage victory by Junior High School student on the 2nd leg, Tatsuya Yamaguchi were unable to come near their 3rd place finish of last year, coming in in 11th place almost 2 minutes behind the winners.

Read a full race report in English at Japan Running News here and watch NHK highlights of the race (in Japanese) here.