Fresh from retaining her women’s world championship title in Santiago, Mina Sato made history on Friday with yet another victory in top-flight Japanese keirin.

Her triumph in the final of the Keirin Festival Women’s Championship, held at the 400m indoor track at Kokura, meant she took all four G1 titles in 2025 – becoming the first rider, male or female, ever to complete a clean sweep in the same calendar year.

Sato 1 made her move from the back as the bell sounded with a lap and a quarter remaining. She was first entering the first corner of the last lap, and led the field up the back straight, with Haruka Nakazawa 5 closing the gap behind.

But entering the final bend, Nakazawa overlapped Sato’s rear wheel, and as she tried to correct her line – a touch of wheels, perhaps? – she fell to the outside, taking out the front wheel of Fuuka Sakaguchi 6, sitting just behind.

Moemi Nasu 4 managed to avoid the sliding Sakaguchi – but Ozaki 7 and Oura 3 weren’t so lucky, and crashed hard.

That left only three riders in contention: and Sato still had plenty of work to do, with the veteran Fuko Umekawa 2 chasing her all the way. There was only a quarter of a wheel between them at the line.

MoreCadence reports that Nakazawa was disqualified; Ozaki and Oura managed to finish, but Sakaguchi withdrew.

Sato’s prize of 5.9 million yen (US$ 37,700) brings her 2025 earnings to a ranking-topping 26.6 million yen (US$ 170,000), 3 million yen ahead of her nearest challenger.

The world champion can now prepare for the Girls Grand Prix at Hiratsuka in late December, aiming to improve on her second-place finish last year. Her dominance of G1 events mean she will be joined by the riders ranked 2 to 7 by prize money.