Reito Tsutsumi and Reito Takahashi are the heroes of the Japanese Interscholastic Athletic Meeting

The Japanese Interscholastic Athletic Meeting is a traditional event for the high school boxers where eight winners have been crowned after the last day of boxing. Japan’s ASBC Asian Junior Champion and best hope in this age group Reito Tsutsumi achieved the title but another continental winner Sora Tanaka surprisingly lost his semi-final in this important national selection event.
The Japanese Boxing Federation is managing their youth age group and high school boxers effectively which is part of their long-term strategy. The Japanese youth team competed in the Komsomolsk-na-Amure International Youth Tournament in Russia and in the Bornemissza Youth & Junior Memorial Tournament in Eger, Hungary this year to increase the experiences of their best talents. Their best youth boxers have been preparing to the upcoming ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships which is scheduled to be held in November.
Kagoshima’s National Sports Festival winner Kazuma Aratake defeated Osaka’s Yuga Ozaki in the final of the pinweight (46kg) and became the first winner of the national event, remaining on the top of his category. The light flyweight (49kg) was won by another strong favourite Tokyo’s Kyosuke Takami who defeated Bornemissza Junior Memorial Tournament winner Daiya Kira in a hectic final.
Tochigi’s Syunnosuke Hiratsuka was silver medallist in the Japanese National Sports Festival which he changed into gold this time following his success over Keita Nakayama in the final of the flyweight (52kg). The bantamweight (56kg) title went to Ehime’s Keito Matsumoto who was slightly better than Osaka’s Yusei Yamazaki.
Chiba’s ASBC Asian Junior Champion Reito Tsutsumi claimed the gold medal in the Bornemissza Youth Memorial Tournament in Eger this June where he proved sensational style of boxing. The 17-year-old super talented boxer, whose brothers are also stars in Japan, controlled all of the rounds against Osaka’s Jinta Fujiwara and earned the gold of the light welterweight (64kg).
Chiba’s National Sports Festival winner Reito Takahashi delivered one of the top sensations of the whole event and eliminated the main favourite of the light welterweight (64kg), ASBC Asian Junior Champion Sora Tanaka in the semi-finals which was their repeat match. Takahashi was more confident in the final following that success and defeated Miyazaki’s Yuto Wakita in the title contest.
Kumamoto’s Ryoma Yamamoto is relatively a new face in the high school level but his efforts were enough to beat Osaka’s Chante Ryan in the final of the welterweight (69kg). Nara’s ASBC Asian Junior Boxing Championships bronze medallist Rei Nakano won the gold medal in the Japanese High School National Selection Tournament earlier this year and repeated the title after beating Miyazaki’s Kota Matsuno by split decision in the final of the middleweight (75kg).

List of the winners in the Japanese Interscholastic Athletic Meeting
46kg: Kazuma Aratake
49kg: Kyosuke Takami
52kg: Syunnosuke Hiratsuka
56kg: Keito Matsumoto
60kg: Reito Tsutsumi
64kg: Reito Takahashi
69kg: Ryoma Yamamoto
75kg: Rei Nakano

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