Fresh off last weekend's U20 National Championships , Anna Szbrucek (Ushiku H.S.) and Rei Taya (Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) were back in the junior women's 2000 mSC to start off the first day of the 2025 National Sports Festival in Shiga. Szbrucek, born in Japan to Slovakian and Bulgarian parents, won the 3000 mSC at the U20 Nationals in 9:57.11, while Taya set an U18 NR of 10:06.59 in the same race. Here Szbrucek dominated, winning in 6:27.03. Taya was 2nd in 6:33.11 to break both the U18 NR of 6:36.81 and the U20 NR of 6:35.84. 3rd placer Mone Kakuchi (Nagano Higashi H.S.) was under both records too, and if there were an official steeplechase high school record for girls Szbrucek would now have two of them to her name. The U20 boys' 5000 m was also at a high level, with the top 13 all breaking 14 minutes. In a sprint finish Haruki Niizuma (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) outran James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) for the win 13:35.33 to 13:35.85, with Kaito Shudo (Kuras...
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