うたぴょんスポーツOn Sunday, December 14, 2025, Uta ran in the Tatebayashi Ekiden, an ekiden (a road relay where team-mates pass a sash) for elementary school girls. This one had five legs, and Uta ran the anchor, the fifth and final runner to carry the sash home.
The team wasn't just thrown together. Each of the five girls' names started with one kanji, and put together those kanji spelled out the team name: Hirai Chikashi. It was built as a friendship team from the start, and that's really what the day was about.
How the day went
The Tatebayashi Ekiden pulls in strong clubs from different prefectures, so this wasn't a small local race. Uta is 9, born early in 2016, and she's used to racing against older or more experienced runners, but a field like this still raises the stakes.
Her team was Hinachan on the first leg, then Kurumichan, then Chihanachan, then Harukachan, and finally Uta closing it out on the fifth leg. Each girl is named in the video by her leg number, which tells you how much this was framed as a team effort rather than any one runner's moment.
Handing off a sash is different from running alone. By the time it reaches the anchor, there's no one behind you to lean on — whatever gap or lead the first four legs built, you're the one who has to hold it or close it. Uta took the sash for the final leg knowing the whole team's work was riding on those last minutes.
Going up against named clubs from other prefectures, the goal for a team like this isn't really about beating the strongest program in the field. It's about running your leg honestly, passing the sash clean, and finishing as a team. From what I saw, that's what happened — five girls, five legs, one sash, start to finish.
What a parent took away from it
Relays are a different kind of pressure for a kid than an individual race. In a solo race, a bad patch is yours alone. In an ekiden, Uta knew that whatever she did on the anchor leg was going to be the team's final result, for better or worse. That's a lot for a 9-year-old to carry, and I think it's good for her to carry it.
Before a leg like this, what I try to say to her isn't about pace or placing. It's simpler: run your leg, trust the ones who ran before you, and don't worry about anything except the stretch of road in front of you right now. The sash doesn't care what happened in legs one through four once it's in your hands.
Watching the other four girls — Hinachan, Kurumichan, Chihanachan, and Harukachan — run their legs before Uta took over was a reminder that this sport, even though it looks like an individual one most weekends, has a team side that matters just as much. Uta's national ranking from last year, 10th in the country in the 1000m for third-grade girls, is an individual number. The ekiden isn't about that number. It's about trusting four other girls and not letting go of the sash.
What I want to work on with her next isn't speed. It's that handoff moment — staying calm when the sash lands in your hands, settling into your own rhythm fast, and not trying to do five legs' worth of racing in one leg just because you're the anchor.
We'll keep looking for more ekiden chances like this one. There's something about racing as a team of five, with a name built out of five kanji, that sticks with a kid differently than an individual medal does.
The video covers all five legs in order, so you can watch Hinachan, Kurumichan, Chihanachan, and Harukachan run their sections before Uta brings it home on the anchor leg.