Ippei Watanabe Scores 2:07.55 200 Breast At Tokyo Championships

15th TOKYO SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • Friday, June 2nd – Sunday, June 4th
  • Tokyo Aquatics Center
  • LCM (50m)
  • Results

The 15th Tokyo Swimming Championships wrapped up tonight with the non-selection meet representing another tune-up racing opportunity ahead of next month’s World Championships.

The likes of Daiya Seto, Yui Ohashi and Katsuhiro Matsumoto were in the water over the course of the 3 days, but the standout performance came out of former World Record holder Ippei Watanabe.

Competing in the men’s 200m breaststroke tonight, 26-year-old Watanabe ripped a season-best outing of 2:07.55. That not only garnered the gold but it beat the field by well over 3 seconds.

Watanabe opened in 1:01.09 and closed in 1:06.46 to get the job done. His stellar result here outperformed the 2:07.73 it took him to win the national title at April’s Japan Swim. That previous result booked his spot on the Japanese lineup for Fukuoka.

His 2:07.55 now sits among the top 10 personal performances of the World Championships medalist’s career.

Top 10 LCM 200 Breast Performances for Ippei Watanabe

  1. 2:06.67, 2017
  2. 2:06.73, 2019
  3. 2:07.02, 2019
  4. 2:07.08, 2020
  5. 2:07.22, 2016
  6. 2:07.44, 2017
  7. 2:07.47, 2017
  8. 2:07.54, 2021
  9. 2:07.55, 2023
  10. 2:07.56, 2018

Watanabe now frog hops reigning World Record holder and Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia to rank as the 2nd fastest performer in the world this season. Only Russia’s Kirill Prigoda‘s time of 2:07.47 has been swifter.

2022-2023 LCM Men 200 Breast

Qin CHN
Haiyang
07/28
WR 2:05.48
2Zac
Stubblety-Cook
AUS2:06.4007/28
3Leon
Marchand
FRA2:06.5906/11
4Kirill
Prigoda
RUS2:07.4704/19
5 IPPEI
WATANABE
JPN2:07.5506/03
View Top 26»

For perspective, Watanabe’s 2:07.55 outing would have placed 5th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and would have snagged silver last year at the World Championships in Budapest.

As a refresher, Watanabe was shut out of a home Olympic squad, having been beaten at the Trials final by Shoma Sato and Ryuya Mura. He opted out of the 2022 World Championships.

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Swimmerfromjapananduk
9 months ago

So nice to see him getting back to his old speed

Sam M
9 months ago

That’s gotta be in the top 30 all time performances for Japan, right? Pretty freaking quick!

TimmyTongle
Reply to  Sam M
9 months ago

Yep, 17th fastest performance in Japanese history, tied for 67th all-time worldwide.

Sam M
Reply to  TimmyTongle
9 months ago

Appreciate you finding that out!

Octavio Gupta
9 months ago

Score!

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Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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