Fresh off last weekend's U20 National Championships, Anna Shubulchuk (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. Shubulchuk, 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 Shubulchuk dominated, winning 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 Shubulchuk 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 (Kurashiki H.S.) getting 3rd in 13:44.74. 4th through 6th were all under 13:50, 7th to 9th under 13:55, and the next 4 under 14:00, Felix Muthiani (Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.) just getting there in 13:59.52 for 13th.
Compared to those races the senior men's 3000 mSC was relatively tame, with Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) taking the win by 5 seconds in 8:27.35 over Sanetada Ono (Tokai Univ.). 3-time steeplechase Hironori Tsuetaki (Fujitsu) was 11th in 9:14.95, then disappointed fans by withdrawing from the men's javelin throw where he had surprisingly been entered to make his throwing debut.
In other finals:
- Maoko Takashima (Craftia) set a meet record 13.64 m (+0.9) to win the senior women's triple jump.
- Raika Murakami (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) also took the meet record in the senior women's hammer throw with a 66.22 m throw for the win on her third attempt.
- Hyogo Watanabe (Niigata Iryo Fukushi Univ.) outgrew Hitoshi Okumura (Senko) by 1 cm to win the senior men's shot put at 17.94 m.
- Shota Kita (Hozen H.S.) won the junior men's hammer throw with a last-round 64.60 m throw.
- Keigo Nakamura (Kandai Hokuyo H.S.) cleared 2.15 m on his first attempt, giving him the junior men's high jump title.
- Mayu Fujimoto (Seiryo H.S.) closed with a 5.89 m (+0.3) jump on her last attempt, overtaking leader Miyu Onishi (Niihama Higashi H.S.) by 5 cm to win the junior women's long jump.
The National Sports Festival continues through Tuesday.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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