Ekiden Time For Toyota

The sixteenth edition of the traditional ekiden race, organised by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey, will be held on 22 April.

The relay competition, open to Toyota staff, employees of its subsidiary industry partners, and their families, is staged on the 950-meter running course at the company’s Sakarya Facilities. Timing services for the event where no less than 138 teams competed last year is provided by Depar Timing.

The word ekiden comes from the combination of the Japanese characters for “station” and “transmit”. Team members pass the “tasuki”, which is the sash that each runner wears over one shoulder and under the other arm, to each other at a transition zone. Although ekiden races are not very popular outside of Japan, Toyota carries on the tradition in Turkey since 2003.