2015 International Chiba Ekiden cancelled

The 2015 International Chiba Ekiden has been cancelled after 26 years of running. Event coordinators said they were having difficulty recruiting top talent.

The Japan Association of Athletics Federation (JAAF) reached this decision on Thursday. The relay event which alternates male and female athletes over six stretches that make up a marathon would have ran on November 23.

Difficulty attracting top talent is largely thanks to athletes having to balance an already packed race calendar. Other international competitions scheduled around the same time are taking precedence. That’s something that Canadian runners have struggled with in years passed. For example, last year Eric Gillis had to turn down the opportunity. So did Rachel Hannah who was invited to compete but chose instead to race the national cross-country championships happening just five days after the Japanese race.

However several top Canadian athletes did attend. These include Lanni Marchant, Jessica O’Connell, Natasha Labeaud, Lucas Bruchet, Kelly Wiebe, Sami Jibril and Pier-Oliver Laflamme.

The Chiba Ekiden has a reputation for helping budding athletes and giving them the much-needed international competition experience. It had been doing this since its first running in 1988 and continued to do so last year when 13 teams from 11 different countries competed in the six-stretch relay.

This is sad news for the Canadian running scene as athletes and coaches regarded the event as one that provided Canadian athletes important competition experience to help them in their running careers.