The Japanese have dominated the medal-stands at this week’s Western Australia Open State Championships, and that continued into Friday’s finals session.
The big swim was Kohei Kawamoto, who broke Michael Klim’s Western Australia All-Comers record in the 50 fly with a 24.26. That’s just a hair under Klim’s old mark of 24.29. Kawamoto, a veteran at 32 years old, is still one of his country’s top butterfliers. He has an important role of setting a high-sprint example for the new wave of young Japanese swimmers who are greatly improving the country’s sprint prowess.
Meanwhile, 15-year old Brianna Throssell from the City of Perth swim club, which is by far the top sprint club in Western Australia, continued to add to a gold medal haul that numbers at least five for the meet by winning the women’s open 100 free in 55.74. This pipped-past her Perth teammate Blair Evans, who was 2nd in 56.17. By comparison, only two American 15-year olds were better than 56 in all of 2011 – Missy Franklin and Simone Manuel. That shows that Throssell’s performance really puts her in big-time company.
