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Ishizuka and Yukinaga Break Junior and H.S. National Records on National High School Track and Field Championships Day Three

by Brett Larner
videos by naoki620



After setting a National High School Track and Field Championships record to win the girls' 400 m on Wednesday and anchoring her school's 4x100 m relay team, Haruko Ishizuka (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) tore it up again on the Championships' third day of competition.  After dominating the 400 m hurdles semifinals and her 800 m heat Ishizuka was sensational in the 400 mH final, kicking hard in the last 100 m to win in 57.06, a new junior national record, high school national record and meet record.  Her Keiai teammate Mizuki Murakami and 3rd-placer Yuri Arashima (Kurashiki Chuo H.S.) both ran PBs under 59 seconds but were nearly 2 second behind.  Incredibly, less than an hour later Ishizuka was back to win her 800 m semifinal in 2:08.65, the slowest of the three semifinal winning times but still credible given the dangerously hot conditions and, of course, the fact that she had just broken a junior national record.  1500 m champion Chika Mukai (Shigakukan H.S.) had the fastest time in the 800 m semifinals, 2:07.02, promising a great showdown in tomorrow's final.  The 2:02.23 junior national record may be a stretch, but with any luck Mukai and a rested Ishizuka will push each other to the 2:04.00 national high school record.

The other big news came in the boys' shot put, where favorite Shinichi Yukinaga (Seiko Gakuen H.S.) opened with a National High School Championships record throw of 17.87 m in the qualifying round.  On his second throw in the final Yukinaga broke the 18.02 m junior and high school national record with a throw of 18.04 m, coming back on his fifth throw to overtake both records again with a mark of 18.21 m.  Before this year's Championships Yukinaga was the only athlete in the field to have cleared 16.00 m, but in the final the 2nd through 4th placers all threw new bests over 16, a nice uptick in the quality of Japanese throwing.



The boys' 400 mH also saw a new National High School Championships record, with Kazunari Takada (Daini Hosei Prep H.S.) running a PB 50.27 to beat 2015 World Youth Championships silver and bronze medalists Ryusei Fujii (Kokura Kogyo H.S.) and Masaki Toyoda (Rakunan H.S.) for the win and the meet record.  Nanaka Kori (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) rounded out the day's record-breaking action with a meet record and PB 49.15 to win the girls' discus throw by nearly 8 m.  Tokyo H.S. took both the girls' and boys' 4x100 m relays, with its individual 100 m champions Iyoba Edoba and Kenta Oshima anchoring the teams to their wins.  World Youth Championships 100 m and 200 m gold medalist Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, outdone by Oshima in yesterday's 100 m final, anchored the Josai Prep H.S. team to a 6th-place finish in the boys' race.



68th National High School Track and Field Championships 
Day Three Highlights
Wakayama, July 31
click here for complete results

Boys' 5000 m Qualifiers
14:27.15 - Silas Kingori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 1st, H1
14:28.65 - Paul Kamais (Sera H.S.) - 1st, H3
14:28.68 - Kazuya Nishiyama (Tokyo Nogyo Prep Daini H.S.) - 2nd, H1
14:29.52 - Shota Onizuka (Omuta H.S.) - 2nd, H3
14:30.00 - Yuta Kanbayashi (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 3rd, H3
14:30.19 - Rei Hasegawa (Toyokawa H.S.) - 4th, H3
14:31.97 - Kido Miwa (Aichi H.S.) - 5th, H3
14:34.89 - Ryunosuke Omori (Sano Nittai Prep H.S.) - 6th, H3
14:35.76 - Hiroki Abe (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) - 3rd, H1
14:36.29 - Tomoki Ota (Hamamatsu Nittai Prep H.S.) - 4th, H1
14:36.87 - Taiji Nakashima (Sera H.S.) - 5th, H1
14:37.07 - Shunsuke Imanishi (Kobayashi H.S.) - 6th, H1
14:40.48 - Hyuga Endo (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) - 1st, H2
14:40.80 - Takato Suzuki (Ryutsu Keizai Prep Kashiwa H.S.) - 2nd, H2
14:40.81 - Kiseki Shiozawa (Iga Hakuho H.S.) - 3rd, H2
14:41.03 - Jun Kato (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 4th, H2
14:41.10 - Keiichiro Otsuka (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 5th, H2
14:41.18 - John Kariuki (Aomori Yamada H.S.)  6th, H2

Girls' 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Haruko Ishizuka (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) - 57.06 - Jr. NR, H.S. NR, MR
2. Mizuki Murakami (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) - 58.95 - PB
3. Yuri Arashima (Kurashiki Chuo H.S.) - 58.99 - PB
4. Sawako Nakagama (Kagoshima H.S.) - 59.71 - PB
5. Saki Kodama (Oita Oginodai H.S.) - 1:00.04 (59.75 PB in semifinals)
6. Kana Koyama (Kawasaki Tatebashi H.S.) - 1:00.15 (59.61 PB in semifinals)
7. Honoka Iwata (Chukyo Prep H.S.) - 1:00.40 (59.62 PB in semifinals)
8. Minami Nakahara (Osaka H.S.) - 1:00.52 (1:00.46 PB in semifinals)

Boys' 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Kazunari Takada (Daini Hosei Prep H.S.) - 50.27 - MR, PB
2. Masaki Toyoda (Rakunan H.S.) - 50.85
3. Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Narita H.S.) - 51.32 - PB
4. Ryusei Fujii (Kokura Kogyo H.S.) - 51.34
5. Masahito Tashiro (Morioka Nishi H.S.) - 51.92
6. Kazuki Hamamura (Osaka Toin H.S.) - 53.19 (51.82 PB in semifinals)
7. Rui Takahashi (Shibata H.S.) - 53.24
8. Hirotaka Minato (Osaka H.S.) - 54.55 (52.09 PB in semifinals)

Boys' 5000 m Race Walk Final
1. Minoru Onogawa (Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S.) - 21:22.29
2. Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) - 21:25.10
3. Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) - 21:32.58

Girls' 4x100 m Relay Final
1. Tokyo H.S. (Saita - Fukuda - Uemura - Edoba) - 45.55
2. Kyoto Tachibana H.S. (Honjo - Yoshino - Himeno - Iki) - 45.87
3. Kurashiki Chuo H.S. (Saito - Miyake - Sawatani - Saito) - 46.01

Boys' 4x100 m Relay Final
1. Tokyo H.S. (Usuda - Hidaka - Inoue - Oshima) - 40.20
2. Yokkaichi H.S. (Kadoya - Sakakura - Kawamura - Ito) - 40.32
3. Nagoya H.S. (Inagaki - Aoki - Irie - Ogawa) - 40.40
-----
6. Josai Prep H.S. (Ikeda - Kurata - Yoshida - Sani Brown) - 40.63

Boys' Long Jump Final
1. Kazuma Adachi (Osaka Toin H.S.) - 7.74 m +0.6 m/s - PB
2. Hiroshi Endo (Osaka Toin H.S.) - 7.60 +0.9 m/s - PB
3. Chihiro Nozaki (Rakunan H.S.) - 7.49 m +1.2 m/s

Boys' Shot Put Final
1. Shinichi Yukinaga (Seiko Gakuen H.S.) - 18.21 m - Jr. NR, H.S. NR, MR
2. Kei Shimosaka (Omura H.S.) - 16.46 m - PB
3. Kotaro Kazahari (Mizusawa Daiichi H.S.) - 16.32 m - PB

Girls' Discus Throw Final
1. Nanaka Kori (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) - 49.15 - MR, PB
2. Rie Kai (Kumamoto Kokufu H.S.) - 41.49 m - PB
3. Sana Atagi (St. Catalina Joshi H.S.) - 40.48 m

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
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