32-Yr-Old Ryosuke Irie Rips 52.93 LCM 100 Back At Kosuke Kitajima Cup

2023 KOSUKE KITAJIMA CUP

  • Friday, January 20th – Sunday, January 22nd
  • Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center
  • LCM (50m)
  • SwimSwam Preview
  • Results

The 2023 Kosuke Kitajima Cup kicked off from Tokyo tonight with Olympian Ryosuke Irie making a statement right off the bat.

Racing in the men’s 100m backstroke, Irie ripped a winning effort of 52.93 to grab gold. Irie, who turns 33 years of age later this week, opened in 25.71 and closed in 27.22 to beat the field with ease, topping the podium by nearly two and a half seconds.

The time checks in as multi-Olympian Irie’s season-best, overtaking his 53.42 from last November’s Japan Professional Swimming Championships. He now sits only behind American Hunter Armstrong in the overall world rankings in this men’s 1back event on the season with the pair representing the only sub-53 second swimmers thus far.

2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Back

2Ryan
Murphy
USA52.0407/30
3Thomas
Ceccon
ITA52.1207/24
4Xu
Jiayu
CHN52.2605/03
5Hunter
Armstrong
USA52.3306/30
View Top 26»

Also making noise on night 1 was newly-minted short course World Record holder Tomoro Honda.

Racing in his bread-and-butter 200m fly event, 21-year-old Honda put up a winning time of 1:53.63. Splitting 54.33/59.30, Honda logged his 2nd fastest time of the season. He already fired off a massive 1:52.70 at last month’s Japan Open, a time which rendered him the world’s #1 swimmer on the season as well as the #4 performer all-time in the event.

2022-2023 LCM Men 200 Fly

LeonFRA
Marchand
07/26
1:52.43
2Kristof
Milak
HUN1:52.5804/20
3Tomoru
Honda
JPN1:52.7012/03
4Krzysztof
Chmielewski
POL1:53.6207/26
5Thomas
Heilman
USA1:53.8207/26
View Top 26»

National record holder Katsuhiro Matsumoto was the top finisher in the men’s 200m free tonight, producing a time of 1:46.35. The 25-year-old has already been as quick as 1:45.88 this season, a time he logged in November to remain as the world’s 2nd fastest performer on the season.

2022-2023 LCM Men 200 Free

MatthewGBR
Richards
07/25
1:44.30
2Thomas
Dean
GBR1:44.3207/25
3Sunwoo
Hwang
KOR1:44.4107/25
4Pan
Zhanle
CHN1:44.6505/04
5David
Popovici
ROU1:44.7007/24
View Top 26»

Nagisa Ikemoto got it done for gold in the women’s 2free, hitting a mark of 1:58.14. The outing scored a new lifetime best for the 20-year-old, slicing .05 off of the 1:58.19 she previously produced during the 2019 FINA World Cup Series. Her result also shaved .20 off of the 1:58.34 she earned earlier this season to remain the #7 performer worldwide.

Of note, Rikako Ikee was also among the field, wrangling up 4th place in a time of 2:01.35.

2022-2023 LCM Women 200 Free

MollieAUS
O'Callaghan
07/26
1:52.85 WR
2Ariarne
Titmus
AUS1:53.0107/26
3Summer
McIntosh
CAN1:53.65 WJR07/26
4Siobhan
Haughey
HKG1:53.9607/26
5Katie
Ledecky
USA1:54.9603/02
6Claire
Weinstein
USA1:55.2606/28
7Shayna
Jack
AUS1:55.3704/20
8Erika
Fairweather
NZL1:55.4404/02
9Bella
Sims
USA1:55.4507/25
10Marrit
Steenbergen
NED1:55.5107/26
View Top 26»

Additional Winners

  • Rio Shirai took the women’s edition of the 100m back, producing a new meet record of 1:00.29.
  • National record holder Reona Aoki topped the 100m breast field, clocking a new meet record of 1:06.06.
  • Ippei Watanabe made it happen in the men’s 1breast, hitting a time of 1:00.25 to get to the wall first.
  • Miyu Namba was the women’s 800m free winner, posting a time of 8:35.78 to beat the field by 6 seconds.
  • The men’s 1500m free saw Shogo Takeda log a time of 15:07.05, getting to the wall with a comfortable lead over runner-up Kazuki Imoto who snagged silver in 15:09.47.
  • The women’s 200m fly was won by Hiroko Makino who registered 2:09.99 for the victory.

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Owlmando
1 year ago

This guy consistent as sliced bread- no misses

Demarrit Steenbergen
1 year ago

Also that 1 breast from Aoki😳

Khachaturian
1 year ago

doesn’t age

Swimmerfromjapananduk
1 year ago

Hero

iLikePsych
1 year ago

Death, Taxes, and Irie Ryosuke

joe
1 year ago

Legend

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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