All-Japan High School Ekiden Championship

The All-Japan National Ekiden Championships are held for junior high and high school teams in late December, as main track and field outdoor competitions have concluded and the school year is nearing its end.

The 5 girls of the winning team in 2008 covered the half marathon distance in 1:07:37, which is a 9:36.5 3k pace (average leg is 4219m).

Of the 47 high schools that qualified boys teams in 2009, 313 athletes had 5000 meter personal bests of under 15:00.

Of the 47 high schools that qualified girls teams in 2009, 215 athletes had 3,000 meter personal bests of under 10:00.

The issue of foreign students competing in the first stage can be seen when looking at the top 10 performance lists.

For 15 straight years, a foreign student attending a Japanese high school has won the boys 10 kilometer first stage.

The controversy that has recently surrounded the Ekiden also applies to different degrees to participation in basketball, volleyball and table tennis.

The official reason for this is stated by the Federation to be "to make races more interesting for fans".

However, it has been widely reported that the principal motivation for the ban is to break that succession of victories in the event by high school students of black African descent (and in the case of table tennis, of Chinese and Indonesian descent).