101st JAPAN SWIM
- Thursday, March 19th – Sunday, March 22nd
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
Two national records bit the dust on day one of the 101st Japan Swim, the four-day competition which serves as the selection meet for this year’s Asian Games and Pan Pacific Championships.
We reported how 17-year-old Shin Ohashi blasted a new national standard and World Junior record en route to winning the men’s 100m breaststroke. The 2025 World Junior Championships multi-medalist ripped a mark of 58.67, a time which would have earned gold at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. You can read more about Ohashi’s swim here.
Earlier in the day, however, 20-year-old Shoon Mitsunaga logged a lifetime best to take the top seed in the men’s 50m butterfly. His time of 23.06 to land lane 4 for the main event tied the existing Japanese benchmark of 23.06 Taikan Tanaka put on the books at last year’s edition of this competition.
Mitsunaga’s previous personal best in this 50m fly event sat at the 23.73 established in the semi-finals of the race at the 2025 World University Games. That means he hacked well over half a second off his previous PB en route to tying the 23.06 national record.
Mitsunaga added slightly in tonight’s medal-contesting race, hitting 23.16 to still wind up with the gold.
That held off Tomonobu Gomi who touched immediately behind in 23.22 while Shunichi Nakao produced 23.35 as the bronze medalist.
Mitsunaga now ranks just outside the list of top 10 performers worldwide on the season.
