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JA There is a wonderful community around running in the UK. From university athletics clubs and local social running groups to weekend events across the country, runners train together, encourage one another and form lasting friendships through the sport.
Yet the way running is measured remains deeply personal. When race day arrives, running becomes an individual sport again. The result belongs to the athlete whose name appears beside it.
The FT Nikkei UK Ekiden changes that.
Inspired by Japan’s famous and celebrated university ekiden tradition, it gives the UK’s university runners the chance to compete as a team. Five women and five men carry one tasuki, represent one university and work towards one shared result.
Japan shows what university running can become
In Japan, ekiden racing is already at the heart of university sporting culture.
Events such as the Hakone Ekiden attract enormous audiences, create intense university rivalries and turn student runners into nationally recognised athletes.
Supporters do not follow only the fastest runner. They follow the team, the university colours and the progress of the tasuki.
The athletes still need all the qualities demanded by distance running: speed, endurance, discipline and the courage to keep going when the race becomes difficult.
But those individual qualities are placed in the service of something bigger.
A runner carries the work of the teammates who came before them and the hopes of those waiting to take over. Their performance matters because of what it contributes to the team.
The UK Ekiden was established in 2024 to bring this extraordinary sporting culture to Britain and create a new connection between the UK and Japan through university running.
It allows British athletes to experience a different philosophy of the sport: one built around teamwork, responsibility, trust and pride in representing their institution.
But where are the spectators in running?
Running in the UK is rarely treated as a spectator sport. Of course, there are important exceptions, such as the Olympic Games and major city marathons. But most domestic distance races are primarily experienced by the athletes taking part rather than by an audience following the competition.
That is very different from the way many traditional team sports are presented.
In football, rugby and cricket, supporters identify with a team. They follow the team’s story across a season and understand what every result means. They understand what it means if one player is picked instead of another player, and how selection is all about strategy.
The UK Ekiden has the potential to bring that same sense of identity and unfolding drama to running.
Earlier this year, it was noted that 56,217,000 viewers watched the 2026 Hakone Ekiden across its two-day broadcast in Japan (audience measurement data from Video Research, Inc.), numbers that are only comparable to the Super Bowl, which estimated 125.6* million viewers watched Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8, 2026.
Spectators in an ekiden follow the progress of the tasuki and cheer on their university. Every handover changes the race. Every stage contributes to the story and the final result.
A new model for university sport
At the FT Nikkei UK Ekiden Year 3 in June 2026, 17 university teams raced over 112 kilometres between Windsor and Reading. Each team comprised five women and five men, all working towards one finishing time.
After ten stages and almost seven hours, the University of Oxford reached the finish just six seconds ahead of Exeter on the road. Following an official review, Ritsumeikan University was confirmed in second place and Exeter in third.
Oxford runner Ella Davey described the emotion of the final stage:
“That was the best running experience I’ve ever had. Seeing the crowd at the end pumped me full of adrenaline and I just had to dig in. I could see Exeter closing when I turned the bend for home but thankfully I got us home. I have never felt emotion or a finish like it. My team was incredible.”
“I got us home” says everything about the ekiden. Ella crossed the line, but the victory belonged to all ten runners and the university.
A place in the UK Ekiden is decided by results, not by a university’s name, history or reputation. The top eight teams from Year 3 automatically qualify for the following year’s race. The next seven must earn their places through the official qualification process.
Every team must meet a demanding standard, but any eligible university team fast enough to qualify has a genuine chance to win.
A new model for university sport
The UK Ekiden arrives as the UK is reconsidering the potential of university sport.
The Telegraph has explored why elite athletes are choosing to combine high-level sport with university life, while another analysis has considered whether universities could play a greater role in the future of English rugby.
The UK Ekiden shows what that future could look like for running: a national, high-performance competition in which men and women compete together as equal members of one team.
For some runners, university is an important step on the journey from promising junior to professional athlete, international competitor or even a future Olympian. The UK Ekiden gives them a national stage on which to test themselves against leading student athletes while experiencing the pressure and responsibility of competing for a team.
It also brings student runners closer to businesses operating at the highest level of sport. Sponsors such as ASICS bring expertise, opportunities and an understanding of the professional sporting environment. ASICS already works directly with elite and next-generation athletes, supporting their development through training programmes, research and performance-focused products.
Those connections can help students understand what a career in elite sport demands and introduce them to organisations that may support the next stage of their development. At the same time, businesses gain a direct connection with emerging talent and the university communities behind it.
The UK Ekiden gives universities a sporting identity around which students, alumni and supporters can unite. It gives partners a meaningful way to invest in university athletes. Above all, it gives runners something their sport rarely offers: the opportunity to put the team before the individual.