Seto & Sakai Throw Down World’s Top Two 200m Butterfly Times on Day 1 of 2015 Japan Open

Day 1 of the 2015 Japan Open saw several swimmers rock the world rankings with some stellar swims to start off the competition.  The familiar prime-time names of Kosuke Hagino, Daiya Seto and Ryosuke Irie put the world on notice by laying down impressive races for the men, while Natsumi Hoshi rattled the world’s women 200 butterfliers with her own dominant performance.

Meet Results

Women’s Events

The visiting Australian contingent claimed the meet’s first individual victory, with Jessica Ashwood taking the women’s 800m freestyle in a time of 8:31.85.  Japan’s Chinatsu Satou finished about a second behind in 8:32.96 to essentially make the race a two-horse contest.  Yuuna Kikuchi finished third in a time of 8:39.83.

The second individual Aussie win came in the form of Emma McKeon’s 1:56.79 winning 200m freestyle.  She topped the field by well over a second to clock the 9th-fastest time in the world, although McKeon already holds the 3rd-swiftest (1:55.88) from her performance at Australia’s National Championships.  Japan’s Rikako Ikee touched in second with a time of 1:58.01 today, followed by Chihiro Igarashi who finished in 1:58.96 for third.

Another visiting national earned a victory in the women’s events, as Great Britain’s Jessica Fullalove racked up the 100m backstroke win, stepping atop the podium in a time of 1:00.31.  Although swift for this meet, Fullalove was not able to crack the world’s top 10 with that effort.  Japan’s Sayaka Akase claimed second place in 1:01.16 and Natsumi Sakai nabbed third in 1:01.32.

The women’s 200m butterfly is where the pool really started heating up, as Natsumi Hoshi followed up her swift prelims performance (2:07.80) with even more of a statement.  Hoshi touched the wall in 2:06.90 to slide into 5th in the world, just off of her performance from this meet last year where she won the Japan Open title in 2:06.34. Japanese teammate Sakiko Shimizu earned second place in today’s race in 2:09.26, while Haruo Itou settled for 3rd in 2:09.59.  Australia’s Madeline Groves, is clearly using this as a training meet, clocking a relatively sluggish 2:11.99. For someone who holds the top time in the world at 2:05.41 from April’s Australian Nationals, a time over 6 seconds slower is more of an indication of where she is at training-wise than anything else.

2014-2015 LCM Women 200 Fly

FranziskaGER
Hentke
07/03
2:05.26
2Madeline
GROVES
AUS2.05.4104/07
3Natsumi
HOSHI
JPN2.05.5608/06
4Mireia
BELMONTE GARCIA
ESP2.05.8603/28
5Cammile
ADAMS
USA2.06.4008/06
View Top 26»

The Japanese women’s fire continued to burn into the last event, with Kanako Watanabe dominating the 100m breaststroke.  Watanabe’s 1:06.95 blew past the rest of the field, which included Australia’s Jessica Hansen, who wound up second in 1:07.53.  Of Watanabe’s swim, her time today ranks her as 6th in the world, although she has proven to be even faster.  Watanabe set a career-best of 1:05.88 for a new Japanese record at last year’s Japan Open; a time, which would remain as the 2nd-fastest in all of 2014 only behind Ruta Meilutyte’s 1:05.21.

Men’s Events

Japanese star Kosuke Hagino started off the men’s events with a win in the 1500m freestyle, proving the man can essentially swim anything and swim it well at that.  Hagino fell just short of a sub-15 clocking (15:05.35), but once again proves that he is a dangerous force with which to be reckoned across many events.  He is slated to also make his mark at this meet in the 200 IM and 400 IM events against his in-country rival Daiya Seto.

Seto upped the ante yet again in what is becoming his event to lose, the men’s 200m butterfly.  His winning time 1:54.46 now sits as number one in the world, out-touching his own previous mark of 1:54.63 from Japanese Nationals this past April.  Last year’s Japan Open also saw Seto win the event, with a slightly slower time of 1:54.75, so the man is consistent.  Masato Sakai tried to keep pace with Seto, but would wind up in second place in 1:55.08, a time that is now third in the world behind Seto’s two aforementioned marks.  Masayuki Umemoto finished in third in 1:56.60, a time just outside of the world’s top ten.

2014-2015 LCM Men 200 Fly

MichaelUSA
PHELPS
08/08
1.52.94
2Laszlo
CSEH
HUN1.53.4808/05
3Chad
LE CLOS
RSA1.53.6808/05
4Jan
SWITKOWSKI
POL1.54.1008/05
5Masato
SAKAI
JPN1.54.2408/05
View Top 26»

The men’s 200m freestyle saw last year’s 3rd place winner move up a couple of steps, with Yuuki Kobori securing the win in 1:47.48, over a second faster than his 2014 performance.  The next two finishers were just within half a second behind, with Reo Sakata touching in 1:47.85, followed by Australia’s David McKeon in 1:47.94.  Although he holds the world’s 3rd-fastest time (1:45.82) in the 200m free, Japan’s usual big dog in this event, Hagino, opted not to swim having already raced the 1500.

Another consistent Japanese swimmer, Ryosuke Irie, made magic happen yet again, successfully defending his Japan Open 100m backstroke title.  Although his time this year of 53.41 was off his 52.99 from 2014, it is still speedy enough to rank the performance 6th in the world.  Irie already holds the 2nd-fastest performance thus far of 2015 with his 52.99 from Japanese Nats, a time that falls only 11/100 behind Chris Walker-Hebborn’s 52.88 from British Nationals.  Junya Koga, just coming off of his 50m backstroke win at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Charlotte last weekend, touched today in 54.07 for runner-up behind Irie.  Koga clocked a 54.42 for 3rd in this event in Charlotte.

2014-2015 LCM Men 100 Back

RyanUSA
MURPHY
08/04
52.18*relay
2Mitchell
LARKIN
AUS52.37*relay08/09
3Camille
LACOURT
FRA52.4808/04
4Matt
GREVERS
USA52.6608/04
5Jiayu
XU
CHN52.74*relay08/04
View Top 26»

Comparatively, the men’s 100m breaststroke event was slightly lackluster, with no man dipping beneath the 1:00-mark.  Ryo Tateishi took home the win in 1:00.85, while teammates Kazuki Kohinata and Kazuki Hayashi finished in second and third in times of 1:00.80 and 1:01.03, respectively.  Breaststroking legend, Kosuke Kitajima, finished the race in 1:01.28 for fifth place.  The 33-year-old recently announced his retirement from the sport after his push for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.  Additional coverage on that announcement will be forthcoming.

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Gina Rhinestone
8 years ago

For Seto & Sakai it is an act of respect for the other 21 countrymen who broke 2.00 in the heats .

Bushido.

Billabong
Reply to  Gina Rhinestone
8 years ago

And that Is a #realitycheck for the rest of the world, including MP.

HKSWIMMER
8 years ago

To be fair as well – as far as I can see both Hagino and Seto don’t really have a problem with pulling out their best performances in the summer. Hagino dropped massive time for 2012 OG, and both Seto and Hagino in 2014 managed to be pretty consistent near their bests if not at their bests for the extended competition season encompassing Pan Pacs, University Championships and the Asian Games. That’s pretty legit.

Even Irie found a way of dropping time last year, which buckled the trend that we’ve seen from him whereby he simply seems consistent all year round.

Swimmer A
8 years ago

Man, Japan is looking dangerous. I know they have a history of putting up their biggest swims in the spring, but Hagino and Seto have much more experience than they did in Barcelona and continue to imporve. I can’t wait to see them in Kazan.

Tm
8 years ago

Don’t bet on it. The Japanese have historically had a hard time matching their fast times from the spring in the big summer meets.

floppy
8 years ago

Based on how they are swimming lately, I would be very surprised if Hagino and Seto do not sweep the 400 IM in Kazan.

Danjohnrob
Reply to  floppy
8 years ago

Kalisz is so good in the fly and breast and closes well, but his back… He has the tall, trim build of a backstroker; I wish we could hire Vyatchanin to improve his technique or something. I’ve heard Clary is more confident in his breaststroke since he started working with Marsh.

In Barcelona Hagino ran out of gas by the time he competed in the 400 IM on the last day, but I don’t think that will happen in Kazan. Hopefully the US men will be competitive with Japan!

samuel huntington
8 years ago

Hagino 1500 free!! wow, I didn’t know he was a distance swimmer

PsychoDad
8 years ago

Not sure this was posted here, but Clark Smith swam 1:57.15 on 200 fly at the Longhorn Aquatics LC meet last weekend. Joseph Schooling was second with 1:59.21. Schooling won 100 fly with 52.45. Hook’em.

Billabong
8 years ago

Hagino’s 1,500 free time is mind blowing. “Versatile” doesn’t even get close to describing him.

Dave B
Reply to  Billabong
8 years ago

And he stopped early in the race to adjust his googles after they filled with water.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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