Kosuke Hagino Is Back: Wins Twice Handily On Day 1 Of Madrid Open

2017 CAMPEONATO OPEN ABSOLUTO COMUNIDAD DE MADRID

Japanese Olympic gold medalist Kosuke Hagino was back in action tonight in Madrid, having taken several months off since his elbow surgery last September. The post-Rio rest did the athlete good, as the 24-year-old raced his way to two event wins on day 1 of the Campeonato Open Absoluto Comunidad De Madrid.

In the 100m backstroke prelim this morning, Hagino fired off a speedy 54.58 to take the top seed in his very first race back.  He’s been as fast as 52.78 in his career in this event, a mark from 2014 that still keeps the Toyo University swimmer within the world’s top 20 performers of all time. Later tonight, Hagino slowed down to a final mark of 56.29 to score the gold in the event, still by a comfortable margin.

A major influence on his evening performance, however, was the fact that Hagino doubled up on events, racing in the 400m IM timed final. Racing essentially on his own ss he would ultimately crush the field by over 15 seconds, Hagino stopped the clock in a mark of 4:15.23 to establish a quick baseline off which to assess his elbow recovery. Although he won the Olympic gold medal last summer in a much faster Asian Record-setting time of 4:06.05, tonight’s performance checks in among the world’s top 10 fastest this season and is an extremely positive indicator of the champion’s recovery headed into April’s Japanese National Championships.

2016-2017 LCM MEN 400 IM

ChaseUSA
KALISZ
07/30
4.05.90
2David
VERRASZTO
HUN4.07.4706/24
3daiya
SETO
JPN4.07.9906/24
4Jay
LITHERLAND
USA4.09.3106/29
5Max
LITCHFIELD
GBR4.09.6207/30
6Kosuke
HAGINO
JPN4.10.4504/13
7Takeharu
FUJIMORI
JPN4.10.9005/20
8Gunnar
BENTZ
USA4.11.6606/29
9Brandonn
ALMEIDA
BRA4.12.4911/23
10Takatoshi
GUNJI
JPN4.12.5909/03
View Top 26»

The current world leader in the women’s 100m breaststroke, Japanese athlete Reona Aoki, put her talent on display in Madrid as well, taking her signature event handily tonight. 1:08.55 is what she produced this morning to claim the top seed, then Aoki took things up a few notches to nab the win in 1:07.07. Aoki already ranks ahead of the globe with the 1:05.29 time she earned back in January at the Tokyo New Year Swimming Meet.

As with Hagino, Aoki raced in two events, also collecting a silver medal in the women’s 200m IM. She was one of three Japanese swimmers to sweep the podium in the event, led by Yui Ohashi‘s winning time of 2:13.28 and included Wakaba Tuyuuchi‘s bronze medal effort of 2:17.79.

Brazil’s Joanna Maranhao was another foreign athlete to stand atop the podium, winning two events, both as timed finals. She touched in 8:45.01 to take the women’s 800m freestyle, followed by a solid 2:12.15 to win the 200m butterfly.

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korn
7 years ago

Is Hagino training at altitude in Europe?

Raining Day
Reply to  korn
7 years ago

In Spain.

Emanuele
7 years ago

Meanwhile in Milan, Gabriele Detti swimmed the 400 free in 3.45.28. Second performance of the year behind Park in november.
The 400 and 800 free will be fun in Budapest.

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Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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