Kawamoto Posts World-Leading 23.13 50 Fly During Heats Of Japan Trials

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)
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2023 Japan Swim kicked off today from Tokyo with the competition representing the sole opportunity for swimmers to gain qualification for this summer’s World Championships and the Asian Games. In the final event, athletes must meet or exceed the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time for Paris 2024 to be considered for the Fukuoka roster.

Right off the bat, we saw a national record bite the dust in the morning heats, courtesy of Takeshi Kawamoto.

Competing in the men’s 50m fly, 28-year-old Kawamoto ripped a mark of 23.13 to capture the top seed. That outing overtook the previous Japanese standard of 23.17 he put on the books at this same meet last year.

With the final yet to come, Kawamoto now ties Italy’s Thomas Ceccon to rank #1 in the world this season.

【日本選手権】
50m FLY 23.98 11位

久しぶりに3秒台で泳げました！
Ｂ決残ったので、もう１本頑張ってきます。 pic.twitter.com/kzvCV8CgVl

— すなクジラ (@numakuzira) April 4, 2023

Making some noise in the women’s 100m fly was 25-year-old Ai Soma. Soma produced her fastest time in 5 years, landing lane 4 with a morning result of 57.42.

That led the field by nearly one second en route to already getting under the qualification time for Fukuoka. She’ll need to repeat this type of performance this evening in order to add her name to the roster.

Former World Record holder Ippei Watanabe produced a morning time of 59.52 as the only sub-minute swimmer in the men’s 100m breast. That’s a new lifetime best for the 26-year-old who has been on an upward trajectory during his 2023 racing season.

Watanabe has already been under the 1:00 threshold this season with his result of 59.84 logged at the Kirara Cup in February. However, this heats swim now bumps him up to rank 5th in the world.

Daiya Seto put up a field-leading 400m IM outing of 4:11.32 this morning. The next-closest competitor was Kaito Tabuchi who will flank him in the final with his 2nd-seeded 4:12.97. Tomoru Honda, the short course 200m fly World Record holder, is also in the mix with his AM result of 4:13.76.

The top two men need to dip under the 4:12.50 barrier this evening to add their names to the Fukuoka roster. Seto already ranks #2 in the world with his 4:10.14 time from last December, while Honda’s 4;10.93 from that same meet ranks him 3rd.

Additional Top Seeds

• Ikki Imoto led the men’s 400m free with a time of 3:51.23, with Ryo Nakajima right behind in 3:51.68.
• Waka Kobori, bronze medalist in the 400m IM at the 2022 Short Course World Championships, captured the top seed in the women’s 400m free in 4:11.86.
• Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yui Ohashi was the quickest 200m IM swimmer this morning, producing a time of 2:12.69 for the top seed. She’ll be chased by 16-year-old World Junior champion Mio Narita who touched in 2:13.45.