Japanese Show Up in Force, Ruck Still On Fire at Lausanne Cup Day 1

2017 LAUSANNE CUP

Several swimmers had standout days in Lausanne, with a sizable Japanese squad making noise as well as a few others, among those being Canadian teenager Taylor Ruck.

On the day, two Japanese women took down national records. First, Rikako Ikee defeated Ranomi Kromowidjojo in the 50 fly, 25.06 to 25.12. That was faster than Ikee’s 25.14 from November, which also stood as the previous Asian continental record. Yui Ohashi swam in the 400 IM, which was without Katinka Hosszu, speeding to a time of 4:24.03 to lead a Japanese 1-2-3-4 sweep. Ohashi’s time was over three seconds faster than the old Japanese record of 4:27.51, done by Sakiko Shimizu two years aho. Shimizu was actually in this final, too, placing 2nd in 4:28.22.

Taylor Ruck, meanwhile, stormed the 200 back. She was out in a 59.07, coming home to touch in 2:01.66. That time is nearly a full second better than the old Canadian record, a 2:02.56 from 2013 done by Hilary Caldwell. Ruck was also superb in the 100 free, taking 2nd in 52.09 behind Charlotte Bonnet of France (52.06). Bonnet was just off of her own French record, while Ruck was very close to Penny Oleksiak‘s 52.01 national mark. Ikee was 52.11 for third in that final, while Kromowidjojo was pushed off of the top 3 with her 52.16.

Katinka Hosszu had a quiet day, only racing two events, and short ones at that. She won the 50 back (26.47) and the 100 IM (58.40), nearly losing the 100 IM at the finish to Japan’s Runa Imai (58.43), who outsplit the Iron Lady by three tenths on the backhalf.

On the men’s side, the Japanese were relentless, winning seven of the eight contested events.

Kosuke Hagino swam his way to two victories, in the 400 and 100 IM races. He was 4:02.99 in the 400, well ahead of Swiss IM’er Jeremy Desplanches (4:07.53). In the 100, things were much closer, but Hagino again got to the wall first in 52.55, with Germany’s Philip Heintz taking 2nd in 52.90.

Junya Koga was 23.25 to win the 50 back, while in the 200 back, it was Masaki Kaneko in 1:50.04. Yasuhiro Koseki ran away with the 100 breast (57.53), and Katsumi Nakamura won the 100 free (47.00) ahead of Belgium’s Pieter Timmers (47.28).

In the 200 fly, Daiya Seto made an appearance with a 1:50.33 for a five-plus second win.

The only non-Japanese male to win an event was Ukraine’s Andriy Govorov, who was 22.88 in the 50 fly over Michael Andrew‘s 23.04.

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nuotofan
6 years ago

Ohashi is a real swimming beauty, great watching her performing well also in SC northeless her (and Japanese swimmers in general) lack of power.
The same for Runa Imai (breaststroker/Imer): great 58.43 in 100 im, waiting for her 200 im/200 br here and, above all, in next years LC competitions.
Beside Rikako Ikee, other interesting Japanese swimmers (backstroker Natsumi Sakai another one) toward Tokyo 2020.

Aquajosh
6 years ago

Isn’t it a bit rich that Katinka was whining about not having world-class competition when she won the 400 IM at Euros less than a week ago, and here she avoids having to swim Ohashi, who won in a time that would have beaten her at Euros by 3/4ths of a second?

tea rex
Reply to  Aquajosh
6 years ago

Nothing against Ohashi, but Hosszu would mop the floors and the bottom of the pool with her in the 400 IM.

John
Reply to  Aquajosh
6 years ago

I imagine entries were finalized several weeks before euro’s…. I doubt she is avoiding here.

Taa
Reply to  Aquajosh
6 years ago

yeah those two events don’t justify the travel expenses. I would guess she is just hanging on to her Euros taper, swimming shorter events and taking it easy through the holidays If that isn’t case she is ruining her iron lady persona with this event schedule.

tammy touchpad error
Reply to  Taa
6 years ago

That 400 IM in Rio solidified the persona for a lifetime. Go watch that again. The Iron Lady’s stats for the whole quad leading up to that were astounding. One of these days I’m gonna put all the results together, cause its by far the most impressive run we’ve ever seen in swimming consistency wise. NOBODY has been able to do anything close to what she’s done. Some sprinters (SS) have been doing a good impression lately, but still not coming anywhere close.

Swim Fan
6 years ago

Do you mean 2.02.56 from 2013 done by Hilary Caldwell?

korn
6 years ago

Where are the Americans that signed up? Chase and some others were advertised to attend?

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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