Dolfin Swim of the Week: Sato’s 2:07.02 in 200 Breast

Disclaimer: Dolfin Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The  Dolfin Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.

Japan has been a dominant world force in the men’s 200 breaststroke, and 19-year-old Shoma Sato is continuing to build that legacy.

Japanese swimmers now make up 4 of the top 7 performers of all-time in the 200 long course meter breast, along with 5 of the top 12 swims in history. The latest is Sato’s 2:07.02, hit this week at the Japan Student Swimming Championships.

That time was a half-second drop for Sato, and checks him in as the 5th-fastest man of all-time in the event. Sato is on the cusp of becoming just the fourth man ever to break 2:07 in the event. Outside of Russia’s Anton Chupkovwho has been 2:06 on four separate occasions, only Ippei Watanabe (twice) and Matthew Wilson (twice) have been 2:06s in their careers.

The top performers and performances of all-time, per USA Swimming’s database:

Top Performers All-Time – Men’s 200 Breast

  1. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:06.12
  2. Ippei Watanabe (JPN) / Matthew Wilson (AUS) – 2:06.67
  3. Akihiro Yamaguchi (JPN) – 2:07.01
  4. Shoma Sato (JPN) – 2:07.02
  5. Josh Prenot (USA) – 2:07.17
  6. Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN) – 2:07.18
  7. Daniel Gyurta (HUN) – 2:07.23
  8. Zac Stubblety-Cook (AUS) – 2:07.28
  9. Ross Murdoch (GBR) – 2:07.30

Top Performances All-Time – Men’s 200 Breast

  1. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:06.12
  2. Ippei Watanabe (JPN) / Matthew Wilson (AUS) – 2:06.67
  3. Matthew Wilson (AUS) – 2:06.68
  4. Ippei Watanabe (JPN) – 2:06.73
  5. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:06.80
  6. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:06.83
  7. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:06.96
  8. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:07.00
  9. Akihiro Yamaguchi (JPN) – 2:07.01
  10. Ippei Watanabe (JPN) / Shoma Sato (JPN) – 2:07.02

 

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X Glide
3 years ago

Didn’t Chupkov go 2:06.96 at 2017 worlds which should be #8 on the all time performances list?

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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