5TH JAPAN PROFESSIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, November 5th & Sunday, November 6th
- Saga Aqua, Saga City, Japan
- LCM (50m)
- Entries (in Japanese)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Results
Several of Japan’s biggest stars were in the pool over the weekend contesting the 5th Japan Professional Swimming Championships. Japan’s roster for Melbourne has already been announced, which means these Championships offered an additional opportunity to get some racing in one month out.
32-year-old Ryosuke Irie demonstrated his backstroke prowess across the 50m and 100m distances, topping the podium in each.
Irie punched a time of 25.00 in the former and 53.42 in the latter to collect two golds. His 100m back effort checked in as a new meet record and the 2nd fastest time in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Back
Kolesnikov
51.82
| 2 | Ryan Murphy | USA | 52.04 | 07/30 |
| 3 | Thomas Ceccon | ITA | 52.12 | 07/24 |
| 4 | Xu Jiayu | CHN | 52.26 | 05/03 |
| 5 | Hunter Armstrong | USA | 52.33 | 06/30 |
Fellow Olympian Katshiro Matsumoto was also in the water, taking on a trio of events. The versatile ace knocked down a time of 49.16 to win the men’s 100m free while he also notched a gold medal-worthy effort of 51.99 in the men’s 100m butterfly.
Matsumoto has been as quick as 51.18 in the 1fly, a time he put up this past March at the Japanese World Championship Trials. As such, his result here falls within a second of that PB.
Matsumoto was impressive in the 200m free here in Saga City, producing a time of 1:45.88 for the victory. Opening in 51.04 and closing in 54.84, Matsumoto now ranks as the #2 performer worldwide this season. Only South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo has been quicker with his 1:44.67 from October’s National Sports Festival.
2022-2023 LCM Men 200 Free
Richards
1:44.30
| 2 | Thomas Dean | GBR | 1:44.32 | 07/25 |
| 3 | Sunwoo Hwang | KOR | 1:44.41 | 07/25 |
| 4 | Pan Zhanle | CHN | 1:44.65 | 05/04 |
| 5 | David Popovici | ROU | 1:44.70 | 07/24 |
Additional meet records fell at the hands of Shogo Takeda, the newly-minted short course 1500m freestyle national record holder. Here in long course, 27-year-old Takeda earned the win in a time of 15:05.37, the 8th fastest performance of his career.
Satomi Suzuki also notched a new meet record by way of her 31.21 50m breaststroke win while Kanako Watanabe accomplished the same feat with a mark of 1:07.47 in the 100m breaststroke.
Chihiro Igarashi completed a trifecta of podium-topping performances across the women’s freestyle, reaping gold in the 50m in 25.32, the 100m in 55.06 and the 200m in 1:59.53.
