2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Live Results (Omega)
The Japanese women’s 4x50m medley relay has steadily been making improvements over the years, finishing 8th in Doha at the 2014 FINA Short Course Championships, 7th in Windsor at the 2016 edition and now 4th place here in Hangzhou. Tonight, the foursome of Miyuki Takemura, Miho Teramura, Ai Soma and Aya Sato combined to clock a time of 1:44.90, an improvement on the Japanese National Record from Doha by well over a second.
Entering tonight’s competition, the Japanese national standard in the women’s 4x50m medley relay sat at the 1:46.72 the squad of Shiho Sakai (26.73), Satomi Suzuki (30.04), Rino Hosoda (25.58) and Yayoi Matsumoto (24.37) collectively clocked in Doha.
Tonight, however, the aforementioned combo of Takemura (26.14), Teramura (29.50), Soma (25.28) and Sato (23.98) busted out a mark of 1:44.90 to finish just less than half a second off of the podium. The race marked the 2nd NR of the evening, as the Japanese mixed free relay earned a new Japanese record and Asian record in 1:29.51.
Teramura had already snagged a new NR in the 50m breaststroke in a swim-off to try for a spot in the final. Although she missed out on a finals slot, she produced a personal best and new JPN national standard of 30.14 in the process.
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Ikee not being here has cost them two relay medals and a possible third in the mixed free. That would have been a huge confidence boost going into next year.