Imafuku Takes Down Another Hagino JPN High School Record – This Time In SCM

48th ALL JAPAN JUNIOR OLYMPIC SPRING COMPETITION

• Thursday, March 26th – Monday, March 30th
• Chiba International Swimming Pool
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
• Results

18-year-old Kazush Imafuku has been on an absolute tear, wreaking havoc on the Japanese record boards in the distance freestyle events as of late.

Last week at the 2026 Japan Swim, Imafuku downed the Japanese national record in the LCM men’s 800m freestyle, with his impressive time of 7:47.81 overtaking his own previous benchmark of 7:48.34 put on the books en route to snagging silver at the 2025 World Junior Championships.

Earlier in the same competition, the teen established a new Japanese National High School record of 3:45.84 en route to winning the men’s 400m freestyle. That erased the former standard of 3:46.89 retired Olympic icon Kosuke Hagino notched over a decade ago in 2013.

Now, at this week’s 48th All Japan Junior Olympic Spring Competition, Imafuku clocked a new Japanese National High School record in the SCM 800m freestyle.

Racing in the 1500m free, Imafuku unleashed a front half of 7:34.93, obliterating the field in the process, giving us a hint that going all out for the 8free was in his tactical racing plan.

His 7:34.93 opener destroyed his own previous HS standard of 7:37.39 logged just last month while competing at the Wakayama Open Swimming Championships.

Splits for Imafuku’s 800m and overall gold medal-worthy 1500m time of 14:54.30 are below:

Imafuku now checks in as the 2nd-fastest Japanese SCM 800 freestyle performer of all time, sitting just over a second outside the national record.

Top 5 Japanese Men’s SCM 800 Freestyle Performers All-Time

1. Shogo Takeda – 7:33.78, 2022
2. Kazushi Imafuku – 7:34.93, 2026
3. Yuki Ikari – 7:37.83, 2022
4. Naito Ehara – 7:42.28, 2017
5. Kaito Tsujimori – 7:43.99, 2024