Key swimmers on the Japanese national team are headed to the 2022 Mare Nostrum tour in May, marking the first time in three years they’ll have participated as a team.
Citing the need to increase competition with other international swimmers, the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF) is sending a squad including recent standouts Yu Hanaguruma and Naoki Mizunuma. Both men confirmed to SwimSwam they will be racing at the Barcelona and Canet stops of the tour.
As a reminder, the Mare Nostrum dates and city order changed as a result of the insertion of the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest.
The new Mare Nostrum schedule is as follows:
- MONACO 21/22 May 2022
- BARCELONA 25/26 May 2022
- CANET EN ROUSSILLON 28/29 May 2022
After competing at Mare Nostrum, some Japanese swimmers will return to their home nation to train while others will continue on to altitude camp at Sierra Nevada, Spain. All will eventually convene upon Budapest at the end of June, then, to take on the world and try to improve their less-than-expected medal results from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The aforementioned Hanaguruma and Mizunuma were just two of the top performers from the Japanese Sweleciton Meet, which concluded over the weekend. Hanaguruma snagged the 200m breast gold in 2:07.99 while Mizunuma posted the first-ever 100m fly time under 51 seconds for Japan in 50.86.
Excited to see what our upcoming top swimmers got what it takes outside of Japan
The experience is vital! Much like Aussies needing to also compete off-home soil.
has JASF announced their world team? Not finding it in Asia news (on SS) and not sure where else to look.
Yes, working on it!
Thanks!
JASF has released the world university games team but not sure on any other