Mizunuma Shakes Up Men’s Fly World Rankings Down Under

2019 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, January 19th – Thursday, January 24th (day 1 junior relays only)
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Center
• Prelims at 9am local/Finals at 5pm local
• LCM
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Entry List
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

Day 3 Highlights

The electric performer in yesterday’s 200m IM event, Rika Omoto of Japan, was back in the SA Aquatic & Leisure Center pool to capture an additional gold tonight.

The 21-year-old visitor won the women’s 50m fly in a time of 26.60. That mark inserts Omoto among the top performers in the world so far this season, tying Denmark’s Emilie Beckmann who hit the same mark at the Flanders Cup this past weekend.

In the morning prelims of that women’s 50m fly, Olympian Brittany Elmslie made an appearance, striking 27.74 for the 4th seed. Fellow Olympian Madi Wilson also made the top 8, earning the 6th seed in 29.24. Both women wound up scratching the 50m fly final, however.

As for the men’s edition of the fly sprint, Japan’s Naoki Mizunuma was the big winner, taking the top time by .23 ahead of teammate and fellow sprinter Katsumi Nakamura. Mizunuma stopped the clocked at 23.59 to win gold, while Nakamura touched in 23.82 for silver.

Winning the SA title, however, was Olympic finalist Travis Mahoney. The 28-year-old veteran, known for his IM prowess, captured the Aussie title in 25.40.

Of note, star swimmer Kyle Chalmers raced his way to the 3rd seed in 24.27, but wound up scratching the final. For Mizunuma’s part, his 23.59 performance now ranks the Japanese athlete as the 3rd fastest swimmer in the world this LCM season.

Japan also did damage across the men’s and women’s 400m freestyle, where Keisuke Yoshida and Aya Takano each came away with solid swims. Yoshida topped the men’s field in 3:50.88, with teammates Naito Ehara and Kohei Yamamoto also very safely under the 4:00 barrier in respective efforts of 3:52.09 and 3:54.56.

The top Aussie in the men’s race came in the form of Jake Bastian, who touched well behind in 4:06.53, but enough for the meet title.

Aussie Brit Castelluzzo took the women’s title in 4:15.57, but Takano was less than a second behind in 4:16.47. It was a two-women race in that 400m free, as the next fastest finisher was over 20 seconds behind.

Wilson swam to a time of 4:21.99 in the morning, but opted out of tonight’s final.