101st JAPAN SWIM
- Thursday, March 19th – Sunday, March 22nd
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
On the heels of establishing a new World Junior Record last night in the 100m breaststroke, 17-year-old phenom Shin Ohashi of Japan carried that momentum into tonight’s final of the 50m breast.
Racing on day two of the 101st Japan Swim, the qualification meet for both this year’s Pan Pacific Championships and Asian Games, Ohashi ripped a lifetime best of 26.98 to grab the gold.
He scored the sole time of the field under the 27-second barrier, the first occasion on which he’s done so.
Entering this competition, Ohashi’s previous career-swiftest performance sat at the 27.01 clocked at the 2025 Japan Open. That prior result represented the Japanese National High School Record so that’s now cleared the 27-second barrier.
Tonight, Ohashi’s 26.98 beat runner-up Hayato Watanabe who registered 27.24 followed by Toshinari Yanagisawa who rounded out the podium in 27.24.
Ohashi, who turned 17 just earlier this month, has now put the current World Junior Record in this event on major notice. He is only .03 shy of Germany’s Jan Malte Grafe‘s time of 26.95 put on the books at the 2025 World Junior Championships.
In the meantime, Ohashi remains the 3rd-swiftest Japanese performer of all time in the 50m breast.
Top 5 Japanese Men’s LCM 50 Breaststroke Performers All-Time
- Taku Taniguchi – 26.65, 2025
- Yasuhiro Koseki – 26.94, 2018
- Shin Ohashi – 26.98, 2026
- Yuya Hinomoto – 27.11, 2023 & Yoshiki Yamanaka – 27.11, 2021
For Ohashi, he’ll be right in the mix for possible hardware across all three of the breaststroke events at the Asian Games, although he’ll face the likes of Chinese aces Qin Haiyang and Yan Zibei, along with potential domestic competitors Ippei Watanabe and Yu Hanaguruma.
