While competing at her nation’s Olympic Trials in Tokyo, Japanese teen phenom, Rikako Ikee, lowered her own national record in the women’s 100m butterfly.
Ikee stopped the clock in tonight’s finals session in a swift 57.55, to knock the smallest of margins – just .01 of a second – off of her previous record of 57.56 she registered at last year’s World Cup in Tokyo. At just 15 years old, Ikee holds Japan’s 2 fastest times and is quickly closing in on the World Junior Record of 56.61 held by China’s Chen Xinyi since the 2014 Asian Games.
As a growing international sprinting threat, Ikee already owns the World Junior Record/JPN National Record in the 50m butterfly event with her time of 26.17, also from the Tokyo World Cup. She also owns the World Junior Record and Japan’s National Record in the women’s 50m freestyle event with her time of 24.74 from just this past February.
Also earlier this year, Ikee made history in the 100 freestyle event, representing the first Japanese female to clock a sub-54-second freestyle. She knocked just .01 of a second off of the previous record which stood at 54.00 to register a new record of 53.99, which gives her the number one seed in Tokyo this week to try to lower her mark even further en route to Rio.
Look at her hand position in the cover photo. Fingers pointed up towards the sky, leading with the pinky. Her arms/hands turn at the very front of her recovery. Very loose shoulders – obviously fast, but the type of stroke I see almost exclusively from teenage girls.
Lars Frolander had the same type of shoulder flexibility.
How awesome for Japan to have a swimmer who will be at the prime age for a breakout meet at the Tokyo 2020 Games. She very much reminds me of Sarah Sjostrom.
I like her technique. She looks so easy.
Race video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tgxsr37dEU