His final-leg runner Keigo Yuhara was still on the road running. But Aoyama Gakuin head coach Susumu Hara was already high-fiving his other athletes at the finish line in Tokyo's Otemachi district, being certain his team would be back on top.
The school racked up its first Hakone ekiden title in two years with a meet record of 10 hours, 45 minutes, 23 seconds in a convincing victory on Friday.
Aoyama Gakuin built an advantage of 3:02 over the runner-up and reigning champion Tokai University. Tokai's time was 10:48:25, which also eclipsed the previous meet record of 10:52:09, which the Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based school set in the 2019 competition.