2023 JAPAN OPEN
- Thursday, November 30th – Sunday, December 3rd
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Entries (in Japanese)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
A cluster of Australian competitors are racing at the 2023 Japan Open which kicked off today from the Tokyo Aquatics Center, host of the 2020 Olympic Games.
Among the visiting contingent is Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers, with the 25-year-old sprinter wasting no time making his presence known in his pet event of the men’s 100m freestyle.
Racing in the morning heats, Chalmers established his dominance with a swift in-season time of 48.15. The Aussie opened in 23.39 and closed in 24.76 to easily take the top seed.
Of note, another foreign swimmer, Germany’s Josha Salchow, was also under the 49-second barrier with a speedy prelim outing of his own in 48.70.
Chalmers was a hair slower in the final but still grabbed the gold in a result of 48.28 (23.31/24.97). 24-year-old Salchow ripped a personal best to finish just behind him in 48.39 while Japan’s Tomonobu Gomi earned bronze in 49.00.
World rankings-wise, Chalmers inserts himself into the 7th slot while Salchow now ranks 8th in the world on the season.
2023-2024 LCM Men 100 Free
PAN
WR 46.80
| 2 | Chris GIULIANO | USA | 47.49 | 02/25 |
| 3 | Alessandro MIRESSI | ITA | 47.61 | 11/30 |
| 4 | Kyle CHALMERS | AUS | 47.63 | 04/20 |
| 5 | Nandor NEMETH | HUN | 47.78 | 02/15 |
| 6 | Egor Kornev | RUS | 47.82 | 04/19 |
| 6 | Matthew Richards | GBR | 47.82 | 02/15 |
| 8 | Hunter ARMSTRONG | USA | 47.83 | 02/17 |
| 9 | Josha SALCHOW | GER | 47.85 | 04/19 |
| 10 | David POPOVICI | ROU | 47.86 | 04/20 |
Additionally, Chalmers’ 48.15 result checks in as his 2nd-best swim ever outside of a state championship or major international meet. He already clocked a time of 47.69 this past May while competing at the 2023 Sydney Open.
Of note, Chalmers’ teammate Matt Temple won the B-final in a time of 48.83, the 4th-quickest time of the Olympian’s career.
Chalmers is 7th in the world rankings – what a pointless stat based on some arbitrary ‘season’ after he won the world title just 4 months ago in a 47.15 – swimming is not football just do the rankings on calendar year.
It’s Chalmers front front half that will be the make or break for his 100 fs. It looks like he can always come back in around mid 24s no matter what he goes out in but if he cannot improve his front end speed there’s no way he wins the olympics next year. It’s his weakness in the race. You can only go so fast in a 100 before your 50 time needs to become faster so your 100 time can continue to drop
And Singapore’s Letitia Sim finally cracks the Olympics A cut in the 100 Breast, after having come so close at Asiad and the world cup
Woah! What did she go
1:06.36
YAY! congrats to her
This is great, but the biggest Aussie news was Williamson’s 59 low PB in the 100 breast. If he can develop that a touch more then he likely takes the Paris medley spot from ZSC
the nsw meet entries are out. some absentees from qld states:
c2
grant
buckingham
de luutis
da silva
simpson, wunsch, woodward, champion are backing up after qld states. simpson is only entered in the 100 fly. wunsch’s 50 free clashes with her program at qld states, haven’t noticed any clashes otherwise