A record number of 297 young boxers competed in the latest Japanese Interscholastic High School Athletic Meet where the country’s possible representatives in the 2022 IBA Youth Men’s & Women’s World Championships emerged. Japan’s bets on Japanbets in youth world tourney emerge in record-breaking Inter-High
Eight promising fighters came through with impressive wins in the selection tournament that took place in the city of Kochi from July 28 to August 2.
National high school champions Rui Yamaguchi of Osaka and Yuta Sakai of Hyogo crushed their rivals to dominate the flyweight (52kg) and bantamweight (56kg) divisions, respectively.
Fukuoka’s Seiya Nakayama (pin-46kg), Chiba’s Raito Kataoka (light fly-49kg), Aomori’s Keisuke Akimoto (light-60kg), Nigata’s Yamato Rokui (light welter-64kg), Hokkaido’s Shohei Ogino (welter-69kg) and Osaka’s Kazusa Kawabuchi (middle-75kg) were the other victors in this year’s Inter-High.
Japan sent nine boxers to the 2021 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships held in Kielce, Poland where lightweight bet Reito Tsutsumi delivered the lone gold for the country. After participating in the ASBC Asian U22 Championships and other international competitions this year, the young Japanese boxers are raring to impress anew in the upcoming world tourney set on November 13 to 27 in La Nucia-Benidorm, Spain.
The list of the winners at the Japanese Interscholastic High School Athletic Meeting
46kg: Seiya Nakayama
49kg: Raito Kataoka
52kg: Rui Yamaguchi
56kg: Yuta Sakai
60kg: Keisuke Akimoto
64kg: Yamato Rokui
69kg: Shohei Ogino
75kg: Kazusa Kawabuchi
