Kengo Ida Fires Off 50 Fly National Record To Start Japanese C’ships

2019 JAPAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, April 2nd – Monday, April 8th
• Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo, Japan
• LCM
• Qualifying Meet for 2019 World Championships
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Psych Sheets (in Japanese)
• Results

While competing on day 1 of the 2019 Japan Swimming Championships, Kengo Ida fired off a new national record in the men’s 50m fly to kick things off with a bang.

The men’s field was tightly packed after this morning’s heats, with Naoki Mizunuma leading the way tied with Takeshi Kawamoto, each with an AM swim of 23.60. Ida was ranked 3rd after this morning with a mark of 23.65, still within reach of the NR of 23.40. Ida actually set that national standard at this same meet last year.

Ida got the job done in the final, when the 27-year-old sprinter cranked out a monster new lifetime best of 23.27 to take gold ahead of Kawamoto, who settled for silver in 23.40. Bronze in the race went to Mizunuma who touched just .02 out of runner-up in 23.42.

With his effort, Ida now situates himself as #2 in the world, tied with Brazilian beast Nicholas Santos, while his Japanese teammates also enter the world’s top 8.