The 2025 National Sports Festival wrapped Tuesday with a short day of only 5 races. Kain Inagaki (Rakunan H.S.) won a good junior men's 3000 m, out kicking Toa Fujita (Toyokawa H.S.) by less than 2 seconds for 1st 8:11.75 to 8:13.95. The junior women's 3000 m was even better, as Nodoka Ashida (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) held off a chase pack of 5 to win in 9:02.90. Nami Kawakami (Nagano Higashi H.S.) was 2nd in 9:04.22, with 3rd through 6th place all within 0.90 seconds of her.
With NR holder Ko Ochiai having opted for the senior race, the junior men's 800 m wasn't especially fast. Felix Muthiani (Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.) had an easy win over Rakunan's Atsuki Watanabe, running 1:48.65 to Watanabe's 1:49.23. Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) dominated in the senior women's 800 m, winning in 2:02.56.
The mixed 4x400 m relay was a lot of fun, with the top 3 teams all within 0.18 and all 3 breaking the meet record. Featuring Osuke Hasegawa, Riko Ono, Akira Kanamori and Nanako Matsumoto, the Fukushima team took the win in a photo finish with Hyogo, Fukushima timed at 3:18.67 and Hyogo and 3:18.68. Chiba was a close 3rd in 3:18.85.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
Well done in particular to all the winners, record-breakers and prize winners (nyu-sho!)
That Girls' 3000m had extraordinary depth with 10 Japanese girls inside 9:09, seven of them running PBs of up to 12 seconds.
By my reckoning it's very probably the deepest ever Japanese U20 3000m race for Top 10 depth, although there's been a couple of races with better Top 5 depth.