How the world's longest relay race ran out of road

Japan's Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden, set up after the Nagasaki atom bomb and contested by teams of 25 over seven days, fell victim this year to dropping TV revenues. I went along to the last

Nine runners stand in a line on the spot where the world's second and last atomic bomb landed 68 years ago, on a hill in the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The TV cameras are pointed on them, while a small crowd of spectators wave flags in the bright early-morning sunshine. A gun fires and they're off, racing dow...