Matsumoto & Suzuki Score Victories At Japan’s Adult Swimming Championships

6TH JAPANESE ADULT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, November 11th & Sunday, November 12th
• Daiei Provis Phoenix Pool, Niigata Prefecture
• LCM (50m)
• Results

Several big guns were in the water this weekend competing at the 6th Japanese Adult Swimming Championships. Taking place in the long course format, the competition offered up more chances to race ahead of next month’s Japan Open.

Top Men’s Results

Former World Record holder Ippei Watanabe earned the victory in the men’s 200m breast, beating the field by nearly 2 seconds. His time of 2:09.87 is a solid outing for this training meet, especially given the fact that Watanabe’s effort overtook the 2:09.91 he notched for bronze at this year’s Asian Games.

Watanabe remains ranked 5th in the world on the season.

Versatile Katsuhiro Matsumoto tried several different events on for size over the 2-day affair, including the 50m and 100m butterfly races.

In the former, the 26-year-old bagged bronze in 23.85, with his result sitting behind winner Takeshi Kawamoto and Naoki Mizunuma. Kawamoto clocked 23.52 while Mizunuma settled for silver in 23.63.

The 100m fly saw Mizunuma score the sole sub-52-second time of the field in 51.89. Kawamoto downgraded to silver in 52.08 while Matsumoto rounded out the top 3 in 52.27. As a refresher, Matsumoto topped this 100m fly podium at this year’s Asian Games in a time of 51.13.

Matsumoto was the top performer, however, in both the 100m and 200m freestyles. He touched in 49.12 and 1:47.13, respectively, to add to his impressive hardware haul.

23-year-old Yuki Ikari nearly took down the meet record en route to grabbing gold in the men’s 400m IM. Ikari touched in 4:16.33 while the record stands at 4:16.25. Although his performance was well off his personal best of 4:11.88 from 2021, his time now inserts him into the top 10 performers on the season.

Top Women’s Results

Several meet records bit the dust on the women’s side, with Waka Kobori and Ai Soma each downing two by themselves.

23-year-old Kobori topped the women’s 400m free podium in a time of 4:09.79 to score the sole result under 4:10. Kobori’s gold medal-worthy result hacked over 2 seconds off the previous competition standard of 4:12.16. She owns a lifetime best of 4:05.57 in this event, a time she achieved in the heats at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Kobori also nailed a new meet record in the 400m IM, reaching the wall in 4:40.76. That’s just a second off her best-ever outing of 4:30.35 she put up during this year’s World Aquatics Swimming World Cup circuit to rank 5th in the world this season

As for 26-year-old Soma, she hit a result of 26.58 to match the meet record in the women’s 50m fly. She also was victorious in the 100m fly where her time of 58.39 overwrote the competition standard of 58.52.

In the latter event, Soma earned silver at this year’s Asian Games in a time of 57.57.

Veteran Satomi Suzuki snatched the win in the women’s 50m breast, with the 32-year-old clocking 30.87. That beat the field by a solid second en route to Suzuki establishing a new meet record.

Suzuki also snagged silver in the 100m breast, posting a time of 1:07.23. That fell just shy of winner Kanako Watanabe who topped the podium in 1:07.06, knocking .41 off of the previous competition standard in the process.

Finally, the women’s 200m fly meet record fell at the hands of Karin Uchida. Uchida touched the wall in 2:08.90 to come within .01 of her lifetime best of 2:08.89. That PB was registered at the 2020 Inter-College Swimming Championships.