Japanese Olympic Teenagers Make Waves At Inter-High School Championships

2024 JPN INTER-HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 17th – August 20th
• Saga Prefecture
• LCM (50m)
• Results

The 2024 Japanese Inter-High School Championships wrapped up last night from Saga Prefecture with Toyokawa running away with both the men’s and women’s overall titles. Multiple Olympians were in the water over the course of the 4-day meet, upping the star power in the 92nd edition of the competition.

Scores of Top 3 Teams – Men

1. Toyokawa – 266 pts
2. Chukyo University – 177 pts
3. Nihon University Toyoyama – 176 pts

Scores of Top 3 Teams – Women

1. Toyokawa – 218.5 pts
2. Nihon University Fujisawa – 194 pts
3. Musashino – 158.5 pts

Key Results

Olympic finalist in the women’s 100m fly event in Paris, 17-year-old Mizuki Hirai raced her way to 2 individual golds for team Nihon University Fujisawa.

The teen first fired off a time of 56.47 to take the women’s 100m fly, establishing a new meet record in the process.

Hirai opened in 26.42 and closed in 30.05 to get the job done, beating the 57.19 she put up in Paris to place 7th overall in the event. At the Olympics, Hirai was quicker in the earlier rounds, hitting a prelims time of 56.71 and a semi-final time of 56.80.

In fact, her 56.47 from this domestic competition now checks in as a lifetime best, keeping her ranked #2 among the all-time Japanese performers. Only national record holder and 3-time Olympian Rikako Ikee (56.08) has been faster with the pair representing the only JPN female swimmers ever to have delved under the 57-second barrier.

Hirai’s next victim here was the 100m free where she clocked a time of 55.06 for the victory. That’s within range of her career-quickest result of 54.81 notched just this past June.

In case you missed it, Hirai has committed to swim at the University of Tennessee beginning with the 2025 season. That’s a big story for Japanese swimming, an organization which rarely sees its athletes make the crossover to NCAA competition.

Olympic teammate Tatsuya Murasa of Chukyo University also made his presence known at these championships, going 2-for-2 in both victories and meet records.

On day 2, Murasa, who is also just 17 years of age, busted out a time of 1:46.83 to grab the gold in the men’s 200m freestyle.

The teen split 52.16/54.67 on his way to establishing the new competition benchmark by nearly 2 seconds. His effort fell just shy of his lifetime best of 1:46.69, a time he put up leading off the Japanese men’s 4x200m free relay which placed 7th in Paris.

Murasa doubled up with a victory in the 100m free, punching a result of 48.99. That not only erased the previous meet record but it also rendered a new Japanese High School Record in the event.

Finally, IM ace Mio Narita claimed gold in the 400m IM on the final day of competition. After settling for silver in the 200m IM on night 1 (2:12.67), Narita upgraded to gold with a time of 4:40.25 in the longer event.

17-year-old Narita earned a 6th place finish in Paris, turning in a time of 4:38.83. She’s been as fast as 4:35.40 in her young career.