SWIMMING AT THE 2018 ASIAN GAMES
- August 19th-24th, 2018
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Schedule & Results
- Youtube Live Stream
The 2018 Asian Games wrap up tonight in Indonesia, with medal finals in six more events.
Rikako Ikee is after her 8th medal of these Games, leading heats of the 50 free. She’s already won the 100 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 4×100 free relay and 4×100 medley relay, and took silver in both the mixed medley relay and the 4×200 free relay.
In the men’s 50 breast, Yasuhiro Koseki is aiming for a sweep of the men’s breaststrokes, but he’ll have to pass up top qualifier Yan Zibei of China, who set an Asian Games record by a huge margin this morning.
China’s women have swept every freestyle gold from 200 to 1500 meters. They get the 400 tonight, with both 800/1500 champ Wang Jianjiahe and 200 champ Li Bingjie in the mix. But Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi is the top qualifier from prelims.
It’s roughly the same story on the men’s side, where Sun Yang is looking for medal #6 and a sweep of the 200 through 1500 frees. He’s just the third seed, but won the 800 over top 1500 seed Shogo Takeda earlier this week.
In the women’s 200 IM, Yui Ohashi of Japan looks to sweep the IM races, but China’s Zhou Min is hot on her heels after prelims. The night will end with the men’s medley relay, where Japan is the top seed and hoping to complete a sweep of the men’s relays this week. The medal table continues to be hotly-contested, with Japan leading 17-16 over China in golds and 46-42 in total medals.
Keep refreshing this page for live, event-by-event updates of all the action from Jakarta.
WOMEN’S 50 FREE Finals
- Asian Record: 24.04, Liu Xiang (CHN), 2017
Asian Games Record: 24.87, Chen Xinyi (CHN), 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: Rikako Ikee (JPN) – 24.53
- SILVER: Liu Xiang (CHN) – 24.60
- BRONZE: Wu Qingfeng (CHN) – 24.87
Rikako Ikee finishes this year’s Asian Games with an amazing 8 overall medals, six of them gold. Ikee eked out a tough 50 free victory over China’s Liu Xiang to come to that total. She also smashed three tenths of a second off the Asian Games record with a 24.53, topping Liu’s 24.60.
The entire top three were under the previous Games record, which was 24.87 from the last edition of these Games in 2014. China’s Wu Qingfeng took bronze in 24.87, exactly tying what was previously the fastest swim in meet history. That shows the fast rise of sprinting in Asia, led by young stars like Ikee, 18, and Liu, 21.
Japan’s Mayuka Yamamoto touched out Singapore’s Amanda Lim 25.45 to 25.47 for fourth.
MEN’S 50 BREAST Finals
- Asian Record: 26.94, Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN), 2017
- Asian Games Record: 27.06, Yan Zibei (CHN), 2018
Medalists:
- GOLD: Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN) – 27.07
- SILVER: Yan Zibei (CHN) – 27.25
- BRONZE: Dmitriy Balandin (KAZ) – 27.46
Yasuhiro Koseki completed a sweep of the 50, 100 and 200 breaststrokes this week, winning the 50 breast by two tenths. Koseki actually wasn’t able to better the meet-record 27.06 set by China’s Yan Zibei in heats, but took advantage of Yan’s slide in finals to pick up his third gold and fourth medal so far.
The win for Koseki ties him with Xu Jiayu and Sun Yang for the male lead with three individual gold medals in Jakarta, though Sun has a chance for one more later tonight.
Yan faded to 27.25, but still picked up silver, as he did in the 100 breast. It was, in fact, a direct repeat of the 100 breast finish order at the top, with Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin taking bronze once again in 27.46. Balandin, Kazakhstan’s first Olympic swimming champ, has teased retirement in his post-race comments this week.
China’s Sun Jiajun was fourth in 27.65, followed by Vladislav Mustafin (27.72) of Uzbekistan.
WOMEN’S 400 FREE Finals
- Asian Record: 4:01.75, Li Bingjie (CHN), 2017
Asian Games Record: 4:05.58, Shao Yiwen (CHN), 2010
Medalists:
- GOLD: Wang Jianjiahe (CHN) – 4:03.18
- SILVER: Li Bingjie (CHN) – 4:06.46
- BRONZE: Chihiro Igarashi (JPN) – 4:08.48
In the third head-to-head meeting between China’s young distance stars, 16-year-old Wang Jianjiahe won once again, picking up her third individual gold and fourth overall gold of the meet. Wang was 4:03.18, just four hundredths off her season-best, which ranks 5th worldwide for the season.
Wang has now swept the 400, 800 and 1500 frees in Jakarta, and also swam a key leg on the winning 4×200 free relay. She didn’t swim the 200 free individually, but her 1:55.3 split was the best of anyone on the Chinese relay, including individual 200 free gold and silver medalists Li Bingjie and Yang Junxuan.
Li was second in the 400 free in 4:06.46, just as she was in the 800 and 1500 frees. The 15-year-old Li has five total medals, two of them gold, this week.
Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi bagged bronze, going 4:08.48 easily beating teammate Waka Kobori (4:11.69).
MEN’S 1500 FREE TIMED FINALs
- Asian Record: 14:31.02, Sun Yang (CHN), 2012 – WR
- Asian Games Record: 14:35.43, Sun Yang (CHN), 2010
Medalists:
- GOLD: Sun Yang (CHN) – 14:58.53
- SILVER: Nguyen Huy Hoang (VIE) – 15:01.63
- BRONZE: Ji Xinjie (CHN) – 15:06.18
China’s Sun Yang completed a return to the 1500 this season by winning the Asian Games title. That marks three consecutive Asian Games golds in that event, reaching back to the year 2010, when Sun set the Games record.
Sun was 14:58.53, the only man under fifteen minutes. That won’t get him into the world’s top 10, but does show that Sun could become a world threat in this event again as he works it back into his training. Sun has also now one-upped Wang’s accomplishment in the previous final, sweeping the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 frees at these Games. Sun has four golds and two silvers in Jakarta this week.
Vietnam’s Nguyen Huy Hoang went 15:01.63 for seconds, followed by China’s Ji Xinjie (15:06.18).Top-seeded Shogo Takeda of Japan (15:17.13) fell to just fourth, with Ayatsugu Hirai behind him in 15:24.26
WOMEN’S 200 IM Finals
- Asian Record: 2:07.57, Ye Shiwen (CHN), 2012
Asian Games Record: 2:08.94, Ye Shiwen (CHN), 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: Kim Seoyeong (KOR) – 2:08.34
- SILVER: Yui Ohashi (JPN) – 2:08.88
- BRONZE: Miho Teramura (JPN) – 2:10.98
Kim Seoyeong put Korea on the board as one of just four nations to win swimming events in Jakarta. She topped world leader Yui Ohashi by a half-second and set a meet record in an explosive swim late in the meet. Kim’s 2:08.34 improves her season-best, which already ranked 3rd worldwide this season. It also betters her Korean national record of 2:08.61 from earlier this year.
Ohashi, who was 2:08.16 to win this event at Pan Pacs just a couple weeks ago, was 2:08.88 and finished in silver medal position.
Japan’s Miho Teramura rounded out the medalists in 2:10.98, topping China’s Zhou Min (2:11.42) with a big dropoff behind those four.
With Kim’s win, the medal table now stands almost exactly tied with one event to go.
MEN’S 400 MEDLEY RELAY Finals
Asian Record: 3:30.19, Japan, 2017Asian Games Record: 3:31.37, China, 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: China- 3:29.99
- SILVER: Japan – 3:30.03
- BRONZE: Kazakhstan – 3:35.62
China smashed both Asian Games and Asian continental records en route to a statement win in the meet’s final event. The Chinese men went 3:29.99 in the 4×100 medley relay, a time that sits #1 in the world this year – faster than the American men went in winning Pan Pacs (3:30.20) and than the British men went in winning Euros (3:30.44).
Full splits aren’t available, but China had backstroke star Xu Jiayu leading off, followed by Yan Zibei, Li Zhuhao and Yu Hexin. Maybe more impressive is that no one on that relay is older than 23 years old.
Japan finished with silver in 3:30.03, also faster than anyone else in the world this year besides China. Japan’s team was made up of Ryosuke Irie, Yasuhiro Koseki, Yuki Kobori and Shinri Shioura.
Kazakhstan took home bronze in 3:35.62, with breaststroke star Dmitriy Balandin holding down that leg alongside Adil Kaskabay, Adilbek Mussin and Alexandr Varakin.
“Chinese men broke the Asain Games and Asain CONTINETAL records.” Thanks yeah I should have been able to figure that out😅
Guys, should we tell him? Lol
Of course Sjostrom is the dominate force in the sprints and butterflies (although Campbell might have a thing or two to say about that), but Ikee is going to be a beast in the upcoming years to challenge that throne. You know Sjostrom is paying attention.
Ikee is not even close in freestyle events. Even Taylor Ruck of the same age is faster than her in 50&100&200 freestyle.
200 is hardly lopsided. Ikee steadily passed Ledecky and was closing on Ruck in that final 50 at Pan Pacs.
Besides, with talent level and youth like that, second tier events can become absolute strengths within a year or less
* the Ledecky who swam 1500 on the same day.
People always overrate young talents and underrate the real kings and queens. Ikee is in no way comparable to Ledecky and Sjostrom.
Two years ago People said Oleksiak would challenge Sjostrom in Tokyo, and now it is Ikee. Last year people said Bingjie would challenge Ledecky and now it is Titmus. In the end they’ll find the real queens are more consistent than those so-called young talents.
I doubt Sarah and Cate are too concerned about Ikee in 50/100 free.
Right now, Ikee’s best prospect for Olympics medal is 100 fly.
Curious to see if Sun Yang will continue to swim the 1500. Sure he can win with that time here, but that won’t cut it at Worlds or the Olympics. Even more impressed by Hoang though. He did not back down from Sun. 18 years old and walking away with a silver in the 1500 and bronze in the 800. That has to be the best ever performance for a Vietnamese male distance swimmer?
Yes, new national record. Taking down his previous best time by 19 seconds is absolutely impressive. He remained the same as old record in the first 800m, but he pushed harder in the last 700m. That made his swim so sick
Very valiant effort from Singapore throughout this whole meet. Performances here have exceeded expectations. On another note, Indonesia clocked a very fast time. Could see them start to challenge Singapore again in the SEA Games
Yes, saw that time by Indonesia, and yes my first reaction was that it was very close. Indonesia probably lifted because of the home crowd, but we should still be safe, though we’ll need Zheng Wen and Joseph to dip their times some more (to what they are capable of in the individual events)
Edit: Zheng Wen’s opening leg was 54.69 – relatively good time. Lionel’s first 50m was 0.5s better than his first 50m in the heats, so his split should be good also. Freestyle leg should be similar to heats timing.
Hey ice, thanks for trying to get the splits! Somehow I managed to get my hands on it.
Zheng wen 54.69
Lionel 1:02.17
Joe 51.53
Darren Chua 49.29
That’s great! Thanks! Great split by Darren Chua
Interesting, base on the above, earlier description and video replay , I suspect Lionel went out too fast in the first 50, hence, lost steam towards the end.
The Australian coach that they hired did a great job.
Actually their Coach is Gary Tan. He is the direct in charge of the national squad.
Poor Irie.
Another silver medal for him even when he beat Xu, it’s his fifth at these games.
It mirrors his career: two silvers each from the Olympics and World Championships, never gold.
He had his glory!
Definitely a shame he hasn’t won more, but regardless of how many golds he’s won he’s still one of the best backstrokers of all time. Very few people have performed at such a high level so consistently in both the 100 and 200 back for 10+ years. Grevers has fantastic longevity as well, but is more or less a one trick pony in terms of Olympic events. Lochte is a great 200 backstroker and has had a long career, but can’t really sprint back, etc.
Who are the great male backstrokers who excelled at both events? Piersol and Murphy are obviously the first names that come to mind. Irie may have finished behind them often, but rarely by very much.… Read more »
Yeah he has nothing to be ashamed of his career. He went against some great backstrokers.
Lenny Krayzelburg, Rick Carey, John Naber, and the greatest backstroker of them all: Roland Matthes
They won Olympics 100/200 backstroke golds and broke WRs in those two events.
Very Low Level Competitions.
CHINA
Xu Jiayu 52.60
Yan Zibei 58.86
Li Zhuhao 50.61
Yu Hexin 47.92
JAPAN
Ryosuke Irie 52.53
Yasuhiro Koseki 58.45
Yuki Kobori 51.06
Shinri Shioura 47.99
Balandin 58.88
Schooling 51.53
Imagine if China or JPN had a Spajari/Chalmers/Adrian level anchor.. 3:28…
Ning zetao last game anchor 37.01s
Oops 46.91s
Puzzled that Schooling swam slower in relays than his individual event.. He splits 50.90 in South East Asian Games 2017 medley. So we can see that he needs to work on his physical fitness.
Was looking at the time between 4th and 3rd place, even if Schooling managed a 50.5, it would not have made a dent in Medal standing. Kazakhstan team was quite impressive.
China GOLD 3:29.99 GR
Japan silver 3:30.03
Kazakhstan bronze 3:35.62
Singapore fourth 3:37.68
What an incredible race! From the start to the final touch. Just few meters from finish it looked like Shioura would touch first. Fantastic times as well.
China and Japan are fastest and second fastest this year in men’s 4×100 medley. Someone said the other day that Asian Games is low level competition 😁