Chalmers, Temple & Dekkers Among Aussies Headed To Japan Open

2023 JAPAN OPEN

• Thursday, November 30th – Sunday, December 3rd
• Tokyo Aquatics Center
• LCM (50m)
• Entries (in Japanese)

Preliminary entries for the 2023 Japan Open have been released which means we have a glimpse into the international talent expected to descend upon the Tokyo Aquatics Center beginning on Thursday, November 30th.

Along with a plethora of domestic talent to the tune of Tomoru Honda, Ippei Watanabe and Ryosuke Irie, a strong Australian contingent will make the trek for the 4-day competition.

Multi-Olympic medalist Kyle Chalmers headlines the Aussie squad, with the 25-year-old entering in the 50 free, 100m free, 50m fly and 100m fly events. The freestyle ace is coming off of a successful 2023 World Championships which saw the Marion swimmer win 100m freestyle gold in a 47.15 stunner.

Chalmers will be joined by teammate Matt Temple, with the 24-year-old slated to race the 100m free along with all 3 distances of the butterfly discipline. Temple wrangled up a trio of relay medals in Fukuoka, including as a member of the Aussie podium-topping 4x100m free relay as a prelims participant.

Commonwealth Games champion and World Championships silver medalist Elizabeth Dekkers heads up the women’s portion of the Aussies headed to Tokyo. Talara-Jade Dixon, Tara Kinder, Ella Ramsay and Chelsea Hodges are also sprinkled among the entry list.

For 22-year-old Queenslander Hodges, this meet is another stop along her recovery journey from hip surgery which rendered her out of this year’s World Championships.

Hodges has since competed both in short course and long course with her return a welcome one for Aussie fans looking to see their women’s medley relay return to the top-tier of podium potential.

Korea’s An Sehyeon is another international competitor,  as are Quah Zheng Wen, Quah Ting Wn, Quah Jing Wen, Amanda Lim, Darren Lim, Letitia Sim snd Tzen Wei Teong of Singapore.

The top field for the host nation of Japan are listed below with a few notable exceptions.

We reported how Rikako Ikee and Daiya Seto are currently training in Australia under Michael Bohl through the end of the year. Addtionally, freestyler Chihiro Igarashi recently announced her retirement.

Top Japanese Entrants

Men

Shinri Shioura
Masahiro Kawane
Hidenari Mano
Katsumi Nakamura
Keisuke Yoshida
Junya Koga
Ippei Watanabe
Taku Taniguchi
Konosuke Yanagimoto
Juran Mizohata
Genki Terakado
Tomoru Honda
Kenta Ozaki
Ryosuke Irie
Masato Sakai
Shoma Sato
Daiki Tanaka
Yu Hanaguruma
So Ogata

Women

Nagisa Ikemoto
Runa Imai
Waka Kobori
Airi Mitsui
Ruka Takezawa
Rio Shirai
Anna Konishi
Reona Aoki
Ai Soma
Hiroko Makino
Mio Narita
Yui Ohashi