Brett Larner recently translated an article about Hakone Ekiden defending champs Toyo University.
http://www.japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2012/12/toyo-cuts-team-captain-saito-in.html
They cut their captain from their 16 man roster after he had run a 29:14 10k 1 month earlier citing no injury or illness just that he was #17 on their team. Can anyone think of any team ever that would not have a 29:14 guy in their top 10 let alone top 16?!?!