18-Yr-Old Kazushi Imafuku Lowers Own JPN National Record In 800 Free

101st JAPAN SWIM

• Thursday, March 19th – Sunday, March 22nd
• Tokyo Aquatics Center
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

Just a day after establishing a new Japanese National High School Record in the 400m freestyle, 18-year-old Kazushi Imafuku upped the ante with a national record in the men’s 800 freestyle.

Racing in the timed final of the event on day two of the 101st Japan Swim, Imafuku ripped a lifetime best of 7:47.81 to get to the wall first, beating the field by over eight seconds in the process.

Riku Takaki reaped silver in 7:56.75 and Kaito Tsujimori rounded out the podium in 7:58.34.

Imafuku’s time tonight erased his own former Japanese benchmark of 7:48.34 put on the books en route to snagging silver at the 2025 World Junior Championships.

Splits between his two performances are below:

Kazushi Imafuku‘s New 7:47.81 LCM 800 Free JPN National Record

Kazushi Imafuku‘s Old 7:48.34 LCM 800 Free JPN National Record

Entering this competition, Kazushi’s season-best rested at the 7:49.53 logged at last November’s Japan Open. His effort here bumps him up to now rank 3rd in the world on the season.

As a reminder, however, the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF) has set the 2028 Olympic Games qualification standard at a stiff mark of 7:44.59. That’s faster than the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard and well over two seconds faster than what Imafuku performed tonight.