Not every day can be like April 25. That’s the day Punahou’s J. Kai Yamafuji pole vaulted higher than anyone ever had in Hawaii.
On Friday, at the pole vault finals of the Island Movers/HHSAA Track and Field Championships at Kamehameha, Yamafuji was hoping to surpass it. Instead of setting the Hawaii record or the meet record, he settled for a victory by clearing 14 feet, 4 inches on his first attempt at any height all day.
“It’s definitely not the height I wanted,” Yamafuji said. “There was rain, and there was a lot of heat earlier and no tail wind whatsoever.”
When he pole vaulted 16 feet on April 25, the conditions were ideal. Cooler and with a tail wind.
Two other competitors also hit the 14-4 height Friday — Baldwin’s Edward Omine and Kamehameha’s Kainoa Andrade — but Yamafuji did it on fewer attempts. Omine did it on his second try and Andrade on his third.
All three then tried, and failed, at 14-10. Omine and Andrade missed three times each and Yamafuji missed twice, having passed on one of his attempts. Due to that one pass and with the victory already in hand, he was awarded one attempt with the bar higher. He tried for 15-0 and barely missed.
“I guess I rushed it too much and I didn’t get deep enough into the pit,” said Yamafuji, who added, “One and done,” referring to his only successful attempt of the day. “I feel like I had a successful season. I made a goal for the season, which was 16-0. My plan is to go a foot higher every year.”
Most of Friday’s events were trials for qualification into today’s finals. Aside from the pole vault, finals on Friday were held in girls discus, triple jump and high jump, and boys shot put and long jump.
Kamehameha-Hawaii’s Chenoa Frederick broke her own state meet record by 2 inches in winning the triple jump with a distance of 39-10.
Punahou’s Andrei Iosivas, who holds ILH records in the long jump and 100- and 200-meter dashes, won Friday’s long jump state final at 23-3 — 9 inches short of his 24-0 in winning the league title. He’ll try for two more individual golds in the sprints today.
Friday’s three other winners were Kamehameha-Maui’s Micah Au-Haupu (51-3.25 in the shot put) and Keely Logan (5-1 in the high jump), and Kauai’s Taegen Keep (127-04 in the discus).
In trials Friday, Baldwin’s Rev Cadiz set a state meet record in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.20 seconds. The previous mark was 14.44 by Maui’s Dana Navarro-Aries in 1999.
