Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara Rips 1:57.00 200 Back to Break Jr Pan Pacs Record

2022 JUNIOR PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 24-27, 2022
• Mark Takai Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center
• Honolulu, Hawaii (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time)
• Prelims 9:00 AM / Finals 5:00 PM (GMT-10)
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Live Streaming
• Five main story lines – boys
• Five main story lines – girls

BOYS 200 METER BACKSTROKE – FINAL

• Jr World: 1:55.14 – Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS (2017)
• Jr Pan Pac: 1:57.20 – Jack Conger, USA (2012)

Podium:

1. Hidekazu Takehara, Japan – 1:57.00
2. Josh Zuchowski, USA – 1:58.17
3. Keaton Jones, USA – 1:58.98

Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara got out to an early lead in the final of the boys 200 back tonight at the 2022 Junior Pans Pacs and never looked back, soaring to victory in 1:57.00. The swim marks a personal best for Takehara by 1.06 seconds and cracks the Junior Pan Pacs Record of 1:57.20, which had stood for 10 years. The previous record was held by American Jack Conger.

Here is a split comparison between Takehara’s swim tonight and Conger’s previous record swim from 2012.

Unlike Conger, Takehara was able to keep all 4 of his 50 splits under 30 seconds tonight, helping to keep pushing him further under 2:00 pace as the race progressed.

Additionally, Takehara is now the #8 Japanese performer all-time in the event, and the fastest Japanese 18-year-old in the country’s history. He was already Japan’s fastest junior (18 and under) swimmer ever, and now has taken that mark down by a another full second.

He still has quite some way to go to get down to the Japanese Record, however, as backstroke superstar Ryosuke Irie holds the Japanese and Asian Records at 1:52.51.