64TH JAPAN SC SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, October 22nd & Sunday, October 23rd
- Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo, Japan
- SCM (25m)
- SC World Championships-qualifying meet
- Entries (in Japanese)
- Results
While competing on day one of the 2022 Japan Short Course Swimming Championships, Katsuhiro Matsumoto fired off a new national record in the men’s 200m freestyle.
Hitting the wall in a time of 1:41.67, Matsumoto easily defeated tonight’s field, which included Hidenari Mano and Temma Watanabe, who finished with the silver and bronze, respectively. Mano posted a silver medal-worthy effort of 1:43.25 while Watanabe rounded out the top 3 in 1:43.85.
As for Matsumoto, his 1:41.67 result here overtakes his own previous Japanese national record of 1:41.77 he produced in October 2020 as a member of the Tokyo Frog Kings in the International Swimming League (ISL).
Tonight, Matsumoto opened in a front half of 49.51 before bringing it home in 52.16 for the victory. In his previous NR the 25-year-old split 49.03/52.74 to become the first Japanese man to ever delve under the 1:42 barrier in the SCM 200 freestyle event.
Matsumoto’s time tonight would have rendered him the bronze medalist at the 2021 Short Course World Championships, a meet at which he did not compete.
Matsumoto took silver in the long course 200 freestyle at the 2019 FINA World Championships; however, this year in Budapest he placed a disappointing 12th.
With his new record, Matsumoto said post-race, “I didn’t even make it to the finals at the World Championships in Budapest in June. I want a medal at the world short course.”
