78th NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL (JPN)

• Saturday, September 14th – Monday, September 16th
• Sunrise Park, Saga Prefecture, Japan
• Meet Central
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap
• Results

We saw day 2 of the 78th Japanese National Sports Festival unfold tonight with several notable swimmers taking center stage at the Sunrise Park pool.

Following up on his stellar 1:46.76 lead-off on his squad’s 4x200m free relay yesterday, 17-year-old Olympian Tatsuya Murasa fired off a new national high school record in the boys’ 100 free.

Murasa stopped the clock at a time of 48.87 to take the gold as one of two swimmers under the 50-second barrier. Joining him as the runner-up was Kazusa Kuroda who hit 49.56 while Iwami Shunsuke logged 50.54 for bronze.

Murasa opened in 23.69 and closed in 25.18 to post an outing that fell just .09 shy of the 48.79 Shuya Matsumoto put up to win the overall adult male age group’s 100m free final.

As for Murasa, his result represents a new lifetime best and now checks the teen in as Japan’s 11th-swiftest 100m freestyle performer of all time.

Entering this competition, Murasa held the high school record at the 49.09 turned in at the Aichi Prefecture High School Championships in June. That means he’s the first Japanese high schooler ever to clear the 49-second barrier in the event.

Another 17-year-old Olympian Mio Narita also dove in tonight, taking on her pet event of the 400m IM. The teen wound up on the podium, but settled for bronze, clocking 4:45.26.

Grabbing the gold was Kairyo Nagaoka who touched in 4:39.10, establishing a new meet record in the process. Her outing shaved .23 off the previous record of 4:39.33. Chiaki Yamamoto earned silver a hair ahead of Narita in 4:45.16.

Nagoaka now sits as Japan’s 13th-fastest women’s 400m IM in history.

The men’s edition of the 400m IM saw Asaki Nishikawa top the podium with a statement-making swim of 4:12.29. That cleared his competitors by more than 9 seconds.

Nishikawa’s result fell within striking distance of his career-quickest 4:11.94 established at this February’s Konami Open.

Additional Notes

• Shiho Matsumoto was too quick to catch in the women’s adult 100m free, producing a time of 54.95 as the sole swimmer under the 55-second threshold.
• The younger set’s 100m free final saw Mizuki Hirai rip a result of 54.60 to wrangle up gold. That’s a new personal best for the University of Tennessee commit. She’s now the 13th-fastest Japanese 100m freestyler of all time.
• Miki Takahashi earned gold in the women’s 100m back in 1:00.47.
• The men’s 100m back was taken by Hidekazu Takehara who notched 54.21. Takeharu finished in 15th place in the 200m back in Paris (1:58.03).
• 33-year-old Olympic finalist Satomi Suzuki hit a mark of 1:06.64 as the swiftest women’s 100m breaststroke. Suzuki finished 4th in the 200m breast at the Games (2:22.54).
• Two male swimmers broke the minute barrier in the 100m breast, with Reio Okura clocking 59.80 and Yamato Fukasawa snagging silver just .04 behind in 59.84.
• Of note, Konosuke Yanagimoto participated in 2 separate swim-offs at the end of the early session. Olympian Yanagimoto first battled in a men’s 100 free head-to-head, logging 50.50 behind Tenma Watanabe‘s 50.09 for a spot in the final. Then, Yanagimoto raced as a member of Saga’s 4x50m free relay swim-off which beat Chiba to make the medal-contending race.