17th TOKYO SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 17th Tokyo Swimming Championships concluded today with Olympic silver medalist Tomoyuki Matsushita putting up another powerful performance, this time in the men’s 200m IM.
As a follow-up to the solid in-season 4:08.71 400m IM he clocked earlier in the meet, 19-year-old Matsushita ripped a mark of 1:56.73 to lead the charge at this non-selection competition.
Matsushita beat his competitors by over half a second by splitting 25.23/29.60 (54.83)/34.26/27.64. Kosuke Makino reaped silver in a strong 1:57.40 while Hideaki Hashimoto placed 3rd well back in 2:02.31.
Matsushita’s effort this evening represented a near-lifetime best, falling just .38 outside his PB of 1:56.36, which he notched at the Japan Swim this past March to qualify for the World Championships. That checked the teen in as Japan’s third-swiftest performer in the 200m IM and ranked him third in the world this season.
Continuing her impressive momentum at 34 years of age, veteran Satomi Suzuki claimed her 2nd gold here, topping the women’s 50m breaststroke podium.
Suzuki nabbed gold in a mark of 30.78, beating the former meet record of 31.31 in the process.
Runner-up Reona Aoki also cleared the former meet standard, hitting 31.11 for silver while Nana Yamoto rounded out the podium in 32.16.
Olympic finalist Suzuki has already been as fast as 30.36 this season, a time she produced at the Japan Swim to rank 8th in the world. She already nabbed 100m breast gold here in 1:06.91 after putting up 1:06.00 in the prelims.
The men’s edition of the 50m breaststroke also saw its meet record bite the dust. Toshinari Yanagisawa got it done for gold in 27.34, dipping under the former meet benchmark of 27.53.
Silver medalist Taku Taniguchi was also better than the former meet record, logging 27.41 for silver while former world record holder Ippei Watanabe bagged bronze tonight in 27.76.
It was a tight battle from start to finish in the men’s 200m fly, with So Ogata eking out the victory ahead of Genki Terakado by just .01.
Ogata earned the top prize in a mark of 1:55.35 while Terakado settled for silver in 1:55.36. Takumi Terada was the bronze medalist in 1:58.74.
Ogata opened in 55.25 to fall just slightly behind Terakado’s front half of 55.06 before Ogata surged ahead to ultimately touch first.
Terakado took the 2fly title at the Japan Swim, ripping a time of 1:54.73 to rank 5th in the world this season. Ogata was right behind him at that competition, scoring 1:55.34 to rank 14th.
Additional Winners
- Chiho Mizuguchi claimed gold in the women’s 200m fly, producing the sole time of the field under the 2:10 barrier. Mizuguchi turned in a time of 2:09.27 to get to the wall ahead of Osamu Fujimoto and Hanane Hironaka who picked up the minor medals. The former touched in 2:10.12 to the latter’s 2:10.41. Mizuguchi’s lifetime best remains at the 2:08.22 put up 3 years ago.
- The women’s 400m free saw Waka Kobori clock a time of 4:10.03 to claim gold ahead of Miyu Namba who hit 4:10.94. Airi Ebina rounded out the podium in 4:11.62.
- Kaito Tabuchi was the men’s 400m free gold medalist in 3:47.95, defeating the 1500m free champion here, Kazushi Imafuku, who nabbed 3:50.46 as the silver medalist. Kaito Tsujimori logged 3:50.47 for a close bronze medal.
- After training and competing in Australia for most of the past year, Ai Soma returned to her native Japan to pick up the victory in the 50m fly. Olympian Soma hit 26.26 for the gold, with Yumi Kamino producing 26.86 for silver and Suzuka Hasegawa notching 26.90 for bronze.
- Riu Matsui was the men’s 50m fly victor in 23.73 while Naoki Mizunuma and Taikan Tanaka touched simultaneously to share silver in 23.75. Tanaka represents the fastest Japanese man this season, owning a time of 23.06 to rank 10th on the planet.
- Shiho Matsumoto touched in a time of 2:12.67 to handily defeat the women’s 200m IM field. She owns a lifetime best of 2:09.90 from last year.
- The women’s 100m free saw Nagisa Ikemoto get it done for gold in 54.45 while the 100m fly winner here, University of Tennessee commit Mizuki Hirai, was next in 54.72 as the only other sub-55-second performer, Rio Suzuki registered 55.55 as the bronze medalist.
- 18-year-old Tatsuya Murasa posted a winning effort of 48.83 to claim men’s 100m free gold in the sole sub-49-second result of the pack.
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