Kitajima Breaks 100 Breast Japanese Record [Video Added]

(Thanks to Kelvin Yew for posting the video on facebook).

On Day two of the Japanese National Championships in Tokyo, the National Records started falling, including one in each of the two finals races on the day.

Men’s 100 Breaststroke

And just as we thought the 29-year old Kosuke Kitajima was on the tail-end of his career, he goes and breaks-off a lifetime best, Japanese National Record, and the 5th-fastest swim in history with a 58.90 to secure his third-straight Olympic bid. Almost as if sending a message to the world, that swim clears his 2008 Olympic victory by .01 seconds.

With that swim, Kitajima’s Olympic three-peat is back-on-track, though Alexander Dale Oen was faster at last year’s World Championships. He will still have a lot of concern about finishing hard in London – last year he was a 59.4 at these Championships and didn’t get close to that time again in Shanghai.

His teammate Ryo Tateishi moved to 2nd in the world with a 59.60, which is the fastest that he’s ever been in textile. 17-year old Akihiro Yamaguchi broke the Japanese Junior National Record with a 1:00.66 finish for 3rd-place.

Women’s 100 Fly

In the two finals on the second day of this competition, the Japanese went two-for-two on National Records, though both were just by a hair. Yuka Kato won the women’s 100 fly in 57.77, which betters her own mark of 57.80 set at this meet last year. As we saw in today’s women’s 100 breaststroke semifinal where three swimmers were under 1:08 (including a 1:07.4 from Satomi Suzuki for the top seed), the Japanese women are developing a medley relay very similar to the men, which is to say they’ll have three very good legs, and will just need to find that fourth. With how well the young swimmers are moving at this meet, we could yet see that sprint freestyler emerge.

Semi-Finals

Ryosuke Irie kicked off his meet by taking the top seed in the 100 back in 53.17. We’ll reserve judgment on that swim until after the finals; it is the third-fastest swim in the world this year, but with how the Japanese swimmers approach their seasons, he needs to be under 53 seconds, and close to Camille Lacourt’s world-leading 52.75. The number-two seed was Yuuki Shirai more than a second behind in 54.37, followed by the 200-meter specialist Junya Koga in 54.38.

Haruka Ueda took the top seed in the women’s 200 free with a 1:58.49, but she backed up in the final 50 and should be going 1:57’s in finals. In the men’s semi-final, Takeshi Matsuda already swam a lifetime-best in 1:46.84; though the National Record holder Syo Uchida also made this final in 1:48.82 (among a big group of 1:48’s), Matsuda looks to be the class of this race so far.

Full Day 2 results available here.