2020 KOSUKE KITAJIMA CUP
- Friday, January 24th – Sunday, January 26th
- Tatsumi International Swimming Centre, Tokyo, Japan
- 50m (LCM)
- Meet Information
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
While competing on day 3 of the 2020 Kosuke Kitajima Cup in Tokyo, Japan, 18-year-old Shoma Sato busted out the best 200m breaststroke time of his young career to top the podium in 2:07.58.
In the process, Sato beat out former World Record holder and the 2019 World Championships bronze medalist in this event in Gwangju last summer, Ippei Watanabe, staking his claim on a possible national title and Olympic berth when the nation’s Trials come in April.
After establishing himself as the top-seeded swimmer today with a morning effort of 2:10.39, Sato unleashed a lifetime best of 2:07.58 to snag the gold here at Tatsumi.
Splitting 1:01.41/1:06.17, Sato narrowly defeated Watanabe, who touched a fingernail behind in 2:07.86. Watanabe opened in 1:01.47 but finished in 1:06.39 to fall short at this early 2020 meet.
Entering this Kosuke Kitajima Cup, Sato’s personal best rested at the 2:09.21 he produced at the Japanese Student Swimming Championships last September. That outing dipped under the 2:09.39 that FINA officially recognizes as the World Junior Record. That time was done by China’s Qin Haiyang at the 2017 World Championships.
However, Qin was faster than his 2:09.39 at least twice in 2017, when he was still eligible for World Junior Records, including a 2:08.71 at the Chinese Championships and a 2:07.35 at the Chinese National Games. Neither of those times was recognized as the WJR, however, when the slower time from the World Championships was.
Sato swam a time of 2:09.56 to snag silver at the 2019 World Junior Championships but entirely frog-hopped the 2:08-range with his monster 2:07.58 mark tonight.
The teen’s 2:07.58 now ranks him #2 in the world this season.
Men’s 200 Breaststroke Top 5 Performers Since September 2019:
- Zac Stubblety-Cook (AUS) 2:07.28, 12/14/19
- Shoma Sato (JPN) 2:07.58, 01/26/20
- Anton Chupkov (RUS) 2:07.71, 11/03/19
- Ippei Watanabe (JPN) 2:07.86, 01/26/20
- Arno Kamminga (NED) 2:07.96, 10/06/19
Great! I was watching! Akihiro Yamaguchi’s 2:07.01 really should be the WJR and WR, but he set this record in 2012(after he missed London Olympics) and FINA did not start recognizing WJR until following year.
Japan has many LCM competitions all year around.
An amazing performance and we may be seeing a new face challenging the Chupkov Wilson Wantanabe podium
FINA fix your WJRs. So many of them have * next to them because either someone else has been fastest prior to 2014 and FINA just have their heads up their add, or because FINA fails to ratify like 75% of these swims. It’s just comical.
Stubblety-Cook is the real deal too. Wouldn’t be shocked if he and Wilson exchange the Australian Record over the next few years.
Stubblety-cook is by a decent amount the best at actually swimming breaststroke.
His skills are just at a terrible level. They are legitimately bad even at an age group level. Let alone a world class level.
Watanabe is now #4.
I hope he doesn’t pull a yamaguchi
Wow. Yet another one of the Japanese performing excellently in January. Let’s see if he can keep it up.