Japan’s Junya Koga Snags 50 Back All Comers Record At NSW C’ships

2017 NSW STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, March 3rd – Sunday, March 6th
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center (SOPAC)
• Prelims at 9am local (5pm Eastern night before)/Finals at 6pm local Thurs/Fri (2am Eastern), 5:30pm local Sat (1:30am Eastern)
• Meet Central
• Entry Lists
• Day 1 Prelims Recap
• Live Results

While competing on the first day’s finals at the 2017 NSW State Open Championships, Japanese sprinter Junya Koga scored a new All Comers Record in the men’s 50m backstroke. The All Comers Record is essentially the equivalent of the U.S. Open record in the States. Koga ran away with the gold in a time of 24.53, knocking just .01 off of the previous record held by Australian Ben Treffers. Treffers was also in tonight’s race, but finished in 24.98 behind Koga for silver.

Tonight’s 24.53 outing is the 5th fastest of veteran Koga’s career, one which has included winning Short Course World Championships gold just last December. He holds the Japanese National Record with the 24.24 clocked at the 2009 World Championships, a meet in which the once Ann Arbor-trained athlete earned silver. That time still stands as the Asian continental record, with Koga’s next closest coming at the 24.24 he notched winning the 2014 Asian Games.

Koga raced the 100m freestyle prelims, most likely as a warm-up race, in which he clocked a time of 53.97 to tie for 67th. At NSWs, he’s slated to swim the 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke yet.