80th OSAKA HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, June 20th – Sunday, June 22nd
- LCM (50m)
- Results
16-year-old Shin Ohashi of Japan ripped a new World Junior Record in the men’s 200m breaststroke while competing on day one of the 80th Osaka High School Swimming Championships.
Beating the field by over 8 seconds, Ohashi crushed a winning time of 2:07.27.
That hacked his previous personal best to bits, with his former PB resting at the 2:08.89 put on the books just last month while competing on the Mare Nostrum Tour. That maintained the World Junior Championships-bound in his slot as the fastest 16-year-old 200m breaststroker of all time.
With this 2:07.27 performance, however, Shin took things to an entirely new level, wiping out the previous officially recognized World Junior Record of 2:08.01 China’s world champion Dong Zhihao established in 2023.
Faster than that was countryman and world record holder Qin Haiyang‘s unofficially recognized WJR of 2:07.35 notched in 2017.
Shin beat both those standards en route to now rank #2 in the world. In fact, Japan now occupies 4 slots among the top 5 performers this season.
2024-2025 LCM Men 200 Breast
OHASHI
2:06.91 WJR
| 2 | YAMATO FUKASAWA | JPN | 2:07.24 | 02/15 |
| 3 | Filip NOWACKI | GBR | 2:07.32 | 08/22 |
| 4 | Qin Haiyang | CHN | 2:07.41 | 08/01 |
| 5 | IPPEI WATANABE | JPN | 2:07.53 | 02/15 |
All-Time Top 5 Male 16-Year-Old 200 Breaststrokers (LCM)
- Shin Ohashi, Japan – 2:07.27 (2025)
- Josh Matheny, United States – 2:09.40 (2019)
- Ippei Miyamoto, Japan – 2:10.51 (2016)
- Daniel Gyurta, Hungary – 2:10.75 (2004)
- Matthew Wilson, Australia – 2:11.23 (2015)
Splits for Ohashi’s newest 2:07.27 eye-popping effort against his former quickest efforts are below, including a monster opening 100m of 1:00.53. His time ranks as the 18th-fastest performance in history.
| Ohashi’s New 2:07.27 WJR | Ohashi’s Former 2:08.89 PB | Dong Zhihao‘s Former 2:08.47 WJR |
| 28.23 | 28.98 | 29.30 |
| 32.30 | 33.25 | 33.31 |
| 32.91 | 33.58 | 33.75 |
| 33.83 | 33.08 | 32.11 |
For additional perspective, Shin’s 2:07.27 WJR would have claimed bronze at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Japan is no stranger to having an arsenal of 200m breaststroke among its elite stable. In recent history, the nation has had three world record holders in the event, with Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima, Akihiro Yamaguchi and Ippei Watanabe, the latter of whom is still active and ranks 4th in the world at the moment.
High school championships LCM.
5903 in the 100 breastsroke！
“countryman” qin haiyang?
on second thought, it certainly pertains to dong’s official wjr
I thought that the unofficially recognized WJR was Yamagushi 2.07.01 WR at the time
That was before time started according to world aquatics. Qin’s should have actually counted, but wasn’t because….
Yet another swim that’ll probably end up in limbo somehow
Ohashi’s tempo in breaking the WJR is a telling example of how an antithesis of the former WJR swum by Dong Zhihao may look like.
I was talking with a friend more generally about athletics recently, and I realized that East Asian swimmers more generally are technique-driven swimmers as opposed to power-driven. The only real exception I can think of is Qin, who is a big boy. But even Pan isn’t that big, while having an absolutely beautiful stroke. You don’t see East Asians be that big of a threat in 50s, but then you have Japan dominating 200 breast and even get a surprise medal in the 400 IM. Interesting thought
I would thoroughly enjoy a long form article from swimswam about how Japan does this.
Japan continues the trend of dominating the all-time lists in the men’s 200BS. Another trend is the jaw-dropping times at High School meets.