Running in the great outdoors occasionally means coming into contact with wildlife—some harmless, some concerning. A race last weekend in Kokonoe, a small town in Japan’s Kusu district, was canceled after killer hornets crashed an ekiden, a marathon-length relay race around the Kokonoe countryside.
Eighteen boys’ teams from schools in the Kyushu and Tokushima Prefectures were invited to compete in the ekiden. But while practicing on the course the day before the race, 22 competitors were stung by killer hornets, according to Japan Running News. The boys sustained no serious injuries, but at least three athletes from the Miyazaki and Kagoshima teams were taken to the hospital for treatment.
It’s unclear whether the killer hornets in question were northern giant hornets, aka “murder hornets,” or something else. On Saturday, the day before the race, town officials investigated the hornets’ nest, which they’d built in the cracks of a tree trunk. Its location made it difficult to remove, so they ultimately decided to cancel the event at 8 p.m. the night before. Previously, the ekiden has only been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a typhoon.
“We had the scouted the course in advance but didn’t notice the hornet nest,” said a spokesperson from the Board of Education. “We would like to apologize to all the high schoolers who had been looking forward to running our race.”
Japan Running News reports that this isn’t the first time killer hornets have led to canceled foot races in Japan.
Kells McPhillips is a health and wellness journalist living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Runner's World, The New York Times, Well+Good, Fortune, Shape, and others.
