96th JAPAN STUDENT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, October 1st – Sunday, October 4th
- Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center
- LCM (50m)
- Entries (in Japanese)
After a 594-day hiatus, Japanese Olympic finalist Rikako Ikee was back to racing, having taken on the women’s 50m free at the Tokyo Special Swimming Tournament earlier this month.
The 20-year-old leukemia-stricken record holder produced a quality time of 26.32, with a video of the star emerging from the water, clearly overwhelmed with emotions. She was the 2018 Asian Games MVP but revealed her leukemia diagnosis just months later in February 2019, spending most of last year in the hospital. As such, her accomplishment last weekend was celebrated around the swimming globe.
Additionally, Ikee’s 26.32 50m free effort dipped under the 26.86 qualifying mark for October’s Japan Student Championships.
With start lists for the prestigious domestic now published, Ikee’s name indeed appears among the 50m freestyle entrants. In fact, the entries overall are sprinkled with emerging talent to the tune of Shoma Sato, Rio Shirai, and more.
Sato and Shirai are both members of the newly-formed Tokyo Frog Kings, one of the squads added to season 2 of the International Swimming League (ISL). Sato cranked out a lifetime best 2:07.58 in the men’s 200m breast earlier this year to land among the top 20 performers all-time, while Shirai hit a monster 2:07.87 in the 200m back at these same Japanese Student Championships last year to rattle an over-decade old national record.
Another recent groundbreaker in Suzuka Hasegawa is ready to rumble, following up on her impressive 200m fly outing from last weekend. At the aforementioned Tokyo Special Swimming Tournament Hasegawa threw down a massive mark of 2:05.62 to become Asia’s 5th fastest performer all-time.
A host of Japanese medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade (World University Games) are also set to compete at this meet in early October, led by Naples podium-toppers Shinnosuke Ishikawa, Juran Mizohata, Yuki Ikari, Waka Kobori,
Below are some of the key swimmers and their respective entries for the weekend of October 1st.
- Mai Fukasawa – 100/200 breaststroke
- Suzuka Hasegawa – 100/200 fly
- Nao Horomura – 100/200 fly
- Yuki Ikari – 200/400 IM
- Rikako Ikee – 50 free
- Runa Imai – 50 free, 200 IM
- Shinnosuke Ishikawa – 100/200 fly
- Masahiro Kawane – 50/100 free
- Waka Kobori – 400/800 free
- Hiroko Makino – 100 free, 100 fly
- Ippei Miyamoto – 200/400 IM
- Juran Mizohata – 100 free, 200 IM
- Sachi Mochida – 100 free, 100 fly
- Natsumi Sakai – 100/200 back
- Chinatsu Sato – 400/800 free
- Shoma Sato – 100/200 breast
- Rio Shirai – 100/200 free
- Daiki Tanaka – 100/200 fly
- Yuya Tanaka – 50 free, 100 fly
- Keisuke Yoshida – 200/400 free
