2023 JAPAN SWIM
- Tuesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 9th
- Prelims at 9:30 am local (8:30 pm previous night EDT)/A-Finals at ~5:00 pm local (4:00 am EDT)
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Qualification Meet For World Championships, World Junior Championships, World University Games, Asian Games
- JPN Selection Criteria
- Entries (in Japanese)
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
History was made on day two of the 2023 Japan Swim, as 33-year-old Ryosuke Irie earned his 10th consecutive national title in the men’s 100m backstroke.
After setting himself up as the top-seeded swimmer out of the heats with a morning time of 53.99, the racing mainstay punched a result of 53.46 to win the gold in tonight’s final. Riku Matsuyama snagged silver in 54.46 while Reo Miura rounded out the top 3 in 54.69.
For Irie, his time tonight dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard needed to qualify for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka.
Remarkably, once Irie is officially named to the Japanese roster, this would mark the Olympian’s 8th consecutive World Championships appearance.
Irie has been quicker in the 1back this season, ranking 3rd in the world with his 52.93 at the Kosuke Kitajima Cup in January. However, the national record holder has time to bring his swimming into the 52-second range again and this summer he’ll have a crowd behind him with Worlds taking place on his home soil.
And the journey doesn’t stop this summer, as Irie has publicly committed to race in Paris 2024. He said earlier this year, “I decided to strongly aim for the Paris Olympics to be held in 2024. I want to swim without regrets for the two years leading up to the Olympics.”
This dude is a freakin legend
National Hero
Are there any other active swimmers with supersuit PBs?
I spent a weirdly long time thinking about this, but I can’t think of anyone at this level with 2008/2009 PBS besides maybe Katinka, whose best 200 fly is from Rome 2009.
Some others that don’t quite rise to this level or are probably retired for good:
-Wu Peng is on a comeback and has a PB in the 200 fly from that era.
-Brent Hayden’s 100 free too, but I think he’s actually retired now,
-Is Ous Mellouli still going for it because his bests are from 2008/2009
-Grevers 200 back, though he also seems done?
-Omar Pinzon has some 2009 PBs and looks to still be training, but unclear to what extent.
Junya Koga perhaps. I know he made a comeback and competed this time last year. Not sure if he still is.
Filipe Franca Silva medaled there but doesn’t have a on from there and hasn’t competed in a while.
Paweł Korzeniowski Competed at the Olympics in Tokyo but probably has retired.
Lazol cseh isn’t too far retired.
Allison Schmitt has some scm PBs from then and she might still be active????
Koga is competing at this meet.
So he is
David & Evelyn Verraszto
This wound up being a pretty interesting question.
Is Fesikova still going? I don’t think she swam after Tokyo (although I don’t keep up very well with internationals, so i may be wrong)
Federica Pellegrini , Kawecki Radoslaw