2014 Asian Games Day 4 Finals, Real Time Recaps: Can Hagino Muster Energy for 6th Medal, Or Will Seto Reign?

2014 ASIAN GAMES – SWIMMING

• Sunday, September 21st-Friday, September 26th
• Incheon, South Korea
• Prelims/Finals: 9AM/7PM local time
• Event website
• Entry lists
• Meet results

SCHEDULE

• Men’s 100 butterfly
• Women’s 200 freestyle
• Men’s 100 breaststroke
• Women’s 200 butterfly
• Men’s 400 IM
• Women’s 100 backstroke
• Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay

Day 4 will see many fierce battles in Incheon, South Korea at the Park Tae Hwan Aquatics Centre, but none will be bigger or more intently focused upon than the men’s 400 IM.

Kosuke Hagino already has 3 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal through three complete days at this meet, and there’s some concern that he could be fatiguing. Seto, meanwhile, has had just two events to worry about so far: the finals of the 800 free relay, and the prelims/finals of the 200 fly.

On paper, the Pan Pacs Champion Hagino is the favorite, but in the context of day 4 of a grueling meet for Hagino, it’s at least a dead-heat heading into the final.

MEN’S 100 BUTTERFLY

• World record – 49.82 – Michael Phelps – USA (2009)
• Asian record – 51.00 – Kohei Kawamoto – JPN (2009)
• Asian Games record – 51.83 – Jiawei Zhou – CHN (2010)

University of Texas freshman and Singaporean national team member Joseph Schooling won his first major international gold medal tonight with a 100m fly win.

Schooling touched the wall in 51.76 to break the previous Asian Games record held since 2010, but fell just short of his own Singaporean national record of 51.69 which he set at the Commonwealth Games this summer.

Following Schooling into the wall was Chinese swimmer Zhuhao Li who finished with a time of 51.91. Schooling and Li were the only two swimmers under 52 seconds as third place finisher Hirofumi Ikebata of Japan grabbed bronze in 52.08.

WOMEN’S 200 FREESTYLE

• World record – 1:52.98 – Federica Pellregrini – ITA (2009)
• Asian record – 1:55.05 – Jiaying Pang – CHN (2008)
• Asian Games record – 1:56.65 – Quianwei Zhou – CHN (2010)

The 200m freestyle went to Chinese swimmer Duo Shen who won gold in 1:57.66 with a comfortable lead. Duo separated herself from the rest of the field to give herself a comfortable victory as second place finisher Chihiro Igarashi of Japan clocked in at 1:59.13.

Behind Igarashi was another Chinese swimmer, Yi Tang, who solidified getting two Chinese swimmers atop the podium in the event with a 1:59.34 finish to round out the top three.

Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong who had an amazing summer meet at the Youth Olympic Games was fourth in the final with a time of 1:59.66, coming close to cracking the top three.

MEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE

• World record – 58.46 – Cameron Van Der Burgh – RSA (2012)
• Asian record – 58.90 – Kosuke Kitajima – JPN (2012)
• Asian Games record – 1:00.38 – Ryo Tateishi – JPN (2010)

Dimitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan added another international win to his tally which started the other night with a huge win and Asian Games record in the 200m breaststroke with a win tonight in the 100.

Balandin broke his second Asian Games record of the week by dipping under a minute to take out Ryo Tateishi’s 1:00.38 from 2010 with a time of 59.92. With that swim, Balandin became the first male in Asian Games history to swim under the 1:00 barrier, and will be alone in that category as second place finisher Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan was a 1:00.23.

With this second big international win for Balandin, it throws him onto the world scene in breaststroke, where a week ago few would have picked him as the eventual winner of the two events here in Incheon.

WOMEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY

• World record – 2:01.81 – Liu Zige – CHN (2009)
• Asian record –  2:01.81 – Liu Zige – CHN (2009)
• Asian Games record – 2:05.79 – Liuyang Jiao – CHN (2010)

Liuyang Jiao won the 200m fly in what was almost start-to-finish fashion, despite losing her first place position at the 100m wall, touching the wall with an end time of 2:07.56.

Following Jiao were two Japanese swimmers, Natsumi Hoshi and Miyu Nakano. Hoshi finished second behind Jiao and gave her a run for her money, staying with her for the entirety of the race and ultimately touching the wall in 2:08.04 to grab bronze.

Nakano wasn’t as close to Jiao as Hoshi was, putting up a 2:09.18 to round out the top three and give Japan another medal. Behind Nakano in fourth place was world record holder Liu Zige who swam a 2:10.01, staying in fourth for the whole race.

MEN’S 400 IM

• World record – 4:03.84 – Michael Phelps – USA (2008)
• Asian record – 4:07.61 – Kosuke Hagino – JPN (2013)
• Asian Games record – 4:13.35 – Yuya Hoshihata– JPN (2010)

Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, the Asian Record holder in this event, looked early in this men’s 400 IM final like his fans’ worst fears had come true. He trailed the leaders after 300 meters of this race, but he saw a resurgence of energy on the freestyle leg (splitting 55.75) to overcome them for what on paper will look like a relatively easy victor, but truly was not.

That swim easily knocked off the Asian Games Record, though it left Hagino just a bit short of his personal best and continental mark.

That’s also a new world leader for Hagino, improving Tyler Clary’s 4:09.03 in one of the last major long course meets of the year, and gives Hagino four golds, one silver, and one bronze in four days at this meet.

China’s Yang Zhixian was 2nd in 4:10.18, and Japan’s Daiya Seto was a touch disappointing in 3rd with a 4:10.39. For Seto, who had a pretty light schedule coming into this 400 IM, that was about two-tenths short of his season-best time from the Japan Open.

Huang Chaosheng was 4th in 4:10.49, and the times dropped off considerably after him.

WOMEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE

• World record – 58.12 – Gemma Spofforth – GBR (2009)
• Asian record – 58.70 – Aya Terakawa– JPN (2013)
• Asian Games record – 58.94 – Jing Zhao – CHN (2010)

China’s Fu Yuanhui has kept the sweep of the women’s backstroke races in-tact so far, adding a 100 meter title on Wednesday to her earlier gold in the 50 meter event.

Fu swam to a 59.95 as the clear class of this field with no Aya Terakawa or Jing Zhao, though she won’t be expected to win the 200 meter backstroke event.

Yekaterina Rudenko of Kazakhstan took 2nd in 1:00.61, matching her own result from the 50 back as well, and Wang Xueer from China was 3rd in 1:01.09.

MEN’S 4×100 FREESTYLE RELAY

• World record – 3:08.24 – USA (2008)
• Asian record – 3:14.73 – JPN (2009)
• Asian Games record – 3:16.34 – China (2010)

Japan took the top seed in prelims of the 400 free relay by a solid margin, but among the top three teams (China, South Korea), they were the ones who didn’t have an ace-in-the-hole to sub in and bring their finals relay to life.

For China, that weapon was Sun Yang, who was a positive sign appearing in this relay. An injury to several fingers on the first day of this meet left him off of China’s 800 free relay, which was a difference-maker that allowed Japan to win, but Sun was back in the water here. He split 48.55 on China’s 3rd leg to give them a slight edge over Japan: an edge that wouldn’t be relinquished. His countrymate Ning Zetao split 47.09 on the anchor to pull away from Japan.

China touched in 3:13.17, which broke the Asian Record in the event. Japan took silver in 3:14.38, and South Korea, with Park Tae-Hwan on their anchor, was 3rd in 3:18.44. Both Japan and South Korea broke National Records with their times.

Full meet results can be found here.