78th NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL (JPN)

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

The 78th National Sports Festival got underway today from Sunrise Park in the Sage Prefecture, featuring multiple Olympians who raced in Paris.

The men’s 200m IM saw 2016 Olympic medalist Daiya Seto grab the victory, hitting a solid time of 1:57.20.

30-year-old Seto’s effort got him to the wall .40 ahead of runner-up Tomoyuki Matsushita who logged 1:57.60 as the silver medalist. Shuya Matsumoto rounded out the podium in 1:58.61.

19-year-old Matsushita represented Japan’s sole Olympic medalist at this year’s Games, reaping silver in the men’s 400m IM behind world record holder and gold medalist Leon Marchand of France.

For Seto’s part, the versatile veteran finished in 7th place in both the 200m and 400m IM events.

Day one of this competition saw a Japanese National High School Record bite the dust, as the Aichi Prefecture squad punched a head-turning result in the men’s 4x200m free relay.

Olympian Tatsuya Murasa, just 17 years of age, gave the squad a big-time lead with a feisty 1:46.76 opener.

That split was a hair of the 1:46.69 lead-off Murasa turned in at the Olympic Games where Japan finished in 7th place. His outing from Paris rendered the rising teen Japan’s 9th-swiftest 200m free performer in history.

Here, the Aichi Prefecture team ultimately finished in a final time of 7:16.30, hacking more than 2 seconds off the previous record of 7:18.59 that’s been on the books since 2012.

Additional Notes

• Waka Kobori topped the women’s 400m free podium in a time of 4:11.57. She finished in 11th place in the event at this year’s Olympic Games (4:08.02).
• Two men dipped under the 3:50 barrier in their edition of the 400m free, with Ryo Nakajima touching in 3:59.30 followed by Kenta Ozaki who hit 3:49.80.
• 17-year-old Mio Narita won the women’s 200m back by over a second, logging 2:10.38 for the gold.
• The entire men’s 100m fly final saw the 8 competitors separated by just a .78 spread. Yoshinori Narushima got the edge, producing a winning time of 52.10. Yuya Sakamoto was immediately behind in 52.21 while Takaya Yasue posted 52.67 for the bronze.