98TH JPN INTERCOLLEGIATE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 98th Japan Intercollegiate Swimming Championships wrapped up with 22-year-old Rikako Ikee topping the women’s 100m freestyle podium.
Following up on her 50m free gold from earlier in the meet, the two-time Olympian representing Nihon University won a close battle with Nagisa Ikemoto. Ikee opened the 1freee in 26.70 to Ikemoto’s 26.71 with both winding up at the wall just .09 apart. Ikee stopped the clock in 54.26 while Ikemoto was immediately behind in 54.35.
Another repeat winner came in the form of Olympic medalist Tomoru Honda. After clinching the 200m fly already at these championships, Honda put on a strong showing in the men’s 400m IM, taking the event by nearly 2 seconds.
Honda produced a winning effort of 4:11.29 to earn the victory, a time which easily surpassed the 4:12.20 he logged for 7th place at this year’s World Championships in Budapest.
As a reminder, Honda came down with COVID-19 shortly after that competition and said about on his experience leading up to this competition, “Until the middle of August, my body continued to feel a little sluggish and heavy, and I was more concerned about how to practice in this state and how to survive the tournament.”
Honda was also a member of Nihon University’s meet record-setting men’s 800m free relay which capped off the competition.
Honda led off with a solid split of 1:46.89, with Konosuke Yanagimoto (1:47.91), Hidenari Mano (1:47.11) and Keisuke Yoshida (1:49.15) helping wrangle up a collective winning time of 7:11.06. Beating the field handily by over 6 seconds, the aforementioned athletes’ time overtook the old record of 7:13.31 with their winning result.
Another notable result came from Olympian Shoma Sato, the nation’s record holder in the 200m breast. In this signature event, 21-year-old Sato turned out a performance of 2:08.46 as the only swimmer to get under the 2:10 threshold.
Splitting 1:01.50/1:06.96, Sato’s time positions him just outside the list of top 10 performers worldwide in the 2breast event this season.
Additional Winners
- Kazuki Imoto took the men’s 1500m free in a time of 15:14.59, beating the field by over 13 seconds.
- The women’s 400m IM saw Ichika Kajimoto produce a winning effort of 4:40.30.
- Taikan Tanaka got it done for gold in the men’s 100m free in 49.33.
How quick is 200 breast in the world right now that a 2.08.46 sits outside the top 10 times for the year.
I feel like Ikee has been in college for 6 years at this point, like one of those basketball players on Wisconsin who had 3 redshirts.
She did have that cancer redshirt.
Honda the next 200fly/400imer for Japan?
Next? brother he is already