34-Year-Old Olympic Finalist Satomi Suzuki Qualifies For World Championships In 100 Breast

2025 JAPAN SWIM

• Thursday, March 20th – Sunday, March 23rd
• Tokyo Aquatics Centre
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview #1
• SwimSwam Preview #2
• Meet Central
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

Day two of the 2025 Japan Swim continued to bring the heat, with multiple swimmers adding their names to the nation’s roster for this summer’s World Championships.

We reported how Tatsuya Murasa, just 17 years of age, busted out a new Japanese National High School Record of 1:45.67 en route to winning the men’s 200m free.

Murasa’s effort, along with runner-up Tomoyuki Matsushita‘s lifetime best of 1:46.96, garners slots on the Singapore roster.

• Faster Than Phelps, 17-Yr-Old Murasa Cranks Out 1:45.67 200 Free JPN High School Record

Making noise in the women’s 100m breaststroke tonight was 34-year-old Olympic finalist Satomi Suzuki.

Suzuki clinched the gold in a rapid 1:06.21, beating national record holder Reona Aoki in the process.

Aoki settled for silver narrowly behind in 1:06.44 while Kotomi Kato, the reigning Junior Pan Pacific Championships 100m/200m breaststroke gold medalist, bagged the bronze in 1:07.08.

Suzuki’s performance represents her fifth Japanese national title in this event.

Both Suzuki and Aoki cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:06.87 needed for the World Championships.

As a refresher, Suzuki was the 4th place finisher in the 200m breast at last year’s Olympic Games. Her result in this shorter distance renders her the 2nd-best performer in the world this season.

Already ranked as the #1 men’s 200m butterflier in the world entering this competition, 22-year-old Genki Terakado upped the ante by matching his season-best en route to winning the event this evening.

Terakado’s previous season-best was represented by the 1:54.73 logged at January’s Kosuke Kitajima Cup and the man tied that same time here.

He was the sole sub-1:55 swimmer, as IM ace So Ogata got it done for silver in 1:55.34, a new lifetime best to become #2 in the world this season. Takumi Terada was tonight’s 3rd-place finisher in 1:55.52. All easily cleared the ‘A’ standard of 1:56.51 needed for Singapore.

Of note, 2020 Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda placed 7th in a casual 1:58.33. That was after already posting a time of 1:55.66 at the Konami Open last month.

Honda’s fans shouldn’t be too worried about this result, however. We reported that he most likely would be bypassing this year’s World Championships even if he had qualified. The 23-year-old is instead laser-focused on his long game of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Yasuki Fujimoto narrowly dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 2:09.21 to win the women’s 200m butterfly.

Fujimoto produced a time of 2:09.10 for the gold, defeating former Japanese national champion Hiroko Makino who missed the cut in 2:09.38.

Chiho Mizuguchi clocked 2:09.52 as the bronze medalist this evening. Surprisingly, Olympic semi-finalist Airi Mitsui finished 5th in a time of 2:11.27, well off her personal best of 2:06.54 from last year’s Olympic Trials.

Additional Winners

• Making the World Championships grade in the women’s 200m freestyle, Nagisa Ikemoto notched a time of 1:58.14 for the gold. That shimmied under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:58.23. Runner-up Waka Kobori and bronze medalist Miyu Namba missed the mark, hitting respective efforts of 1:59.73 and 1:59.78 in the relatively pedestrian final.
• The men’s 50m breast saw its top two finishers both dip under the World Aquatics standard. Taku Taniguchi touched in 27.18 and Toshinari Yanagisawa was next in 27.33. Of note, Yanagisawa is a full-time office worker and only swims part-time with no real training base or coach. You can read more about the 27-year-old here.
• Miki Takahashi earned World Championships qualification in the women’s 50m back, putting up a time of 28.10 for gold.

Japanese World Championships Qualifiers Through Day Two

• Taikan Tanaka – men’s 50m fly
• Katsuhiro Matsumoto – men’s 50m fly
• Mio Narita – women’s 200m IM
• Shiho Matsumoto – women’s 200m IM
• Kazushi Imafuku – men’s 400m free
• Ichika Kajimoto – women’s 400m free
• Miyu Namba – women’s 400m free
• Yamato Fukasawa – men’s 100m breast
• Yu Hanaguruma – men’s 100m breast
• Mizuki Hirai – women’s 100m fly
• Rikako Ikee – women’s 100m fly
• Tatsuya Murasa – men’s 200m free
• Tomoyuki Matsushita – men’s 200m free
• Satomi Suzuki – women’s 100m breast
• Reona Aoki – women’s 100m breast
• Nagisa Ikemoto – women’s 200m free
• Genki Terakado – men’s 200m fly
• Takumi Terada – men’s 200m fly
• Taku Taniguchi – men’s 50m breast
• Toshinari Yanagisawa – me’s 50m breast
• Yasuki Fujimoto – women’s 200m fly
• Miki Takahashi – women’s 50m back