16-Year-Old Yanagimoto Hits 1:44.08 SCM 200 Free JPN High School Record

2020 JAPAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, October 17th & Sunday, October 18th
• Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Centre
• SCM (25m)
• Entries (in Japanese)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results

The men’s 200m freestyle final on day 1 of these Japan Short Course Championships brought the heat, as winner Katsuhiro Matsumoto blasted a new national record of 1:42.10 en route to victory.

However, runner-up Konosuke Yanagimoto‘s time of 1:44.08 not only rendered the 16-year-old silver but the outing also checks-in as a new Japan National High School Record for the Toyoyama High Schooler.

Yanagimoto claimed lane 4 from the morning session with his stellar morning swim of 1:44.56, already a new lifetime best. In tonight’s final, the teen sliced nearly another half a second off of the mark to hit the wall in a time of 1:44.08. The result overtakes the previous Japan HS Record of 1:44.36 that Olympian Kosuke Hagino put on the books 8 years ago.

Splits for Yanagimoto’s new record tonight included 50.25/53.83.

The teen’s swim here proves his eye-popping long course meter swims from last month’s Tokyo Special Swimming Tournament were not a fluke. At that meet in these same waters, Yanagimoto put up a monster 100m free of 49.41 to claim a new National High School Record. He also nailed a big-time 1:47.85 in the men’s 200m free, again at just 16 years of age.