101st JAPAN STUDENT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, September 4th – Sunday, September 7th
- Tokyo Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
Day two of the 101st Japan Student Swimming Championships unfolded tonight from the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with college-age athletes vying for event titles and bragging rights.
We reported how 20-year-old Ei Kamikawabata of Meiji University powered his way to the men’s 200m butterfly gold, posting a new lifetime best in the process.
Kamikawabata stopped the clock at 1:55.39 to destroy his previous PB of 1:56.45 notched at last year’s Japan Open.
He led a trio of sub-1:56 swimmers tonight, joined by So Ogata and Hirohiro Kawano. The former snagged silver in 1:55.50 in the tight race while the latter bagged the bronze in 1:55.87.
On the women’s side, Osamu Fujimoto got it done for gold in 2:08.91, splitting 1:01.48/1:07.43 on her way to topping the podium.
Behind her was Mai Ushirono who registered 2:10.67 as runner-up and Misa Kuzono rounded out the top three in 2:10.77.
World Championships bronze medalist Tatsuya Murasa was too quick to catch in the men’s 200m freestyle, following up his 100m freestyle victory from night one.
This evening, Murasa punched a result of 1:45.62 to establish a new meet record. He shaved .26 off the old mark as he held off Konosuke Yanagimoto.
Yanagimoto notched 1:47.34 as teh silver medalist and Hara Soraki touched in 1:48.09 for third place.
Murasa set the current Japanese national record of 1:44.54 en route to earning bronze in Singapore this year.
Another World Championships medalist, Ichika Kojimoto, was in the pool, with the open water ace grabbing gold in the women’s 800m free.
21-year-old Kojimoto produced an outing of 8:29.85 to reach the wall over 6 seconds ahead of her competitors.
Her personal best in this event remains at the 8:26.02 logged at this year’s World Championship Trials to become the nation’s 3rd-swiftest performer of all time.
In Singapore, Kojimoto won gold for Japan in the 3k knockout sprints and also earned bronze in the women’s 5k race.
Additional Notes
- Kaito Tsujimori earned 1500m free gold for the men, nabbing a time of 15:08.30.
- Three women dipped under the 2:00 threshold in the 200m freestyle, with Ruka Takezawa taking the lead in 1:58.36. Yoshion Nagao was next to the wall in 1:58.48 pursued by Rika Okamaura who rounded out the podium in 1:59.83.
- 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships multi-gold medalist Kotomi Kato got the job done in the women’s 100m breast. She hit 1:06.58 to beat the pack by over a second. Her time was just .02 shy of the 1:06.56 PB she put on the books at last year’s edition of this competition to rank 4th among all-time Japanese performers.
- The men’s 100m breaststroke saw just one swimmer break the minute barrier. Reo Okura earned gold in a new PB of 59.70, slicing .10 off the 59.80 logged last year.
- Finally, the Kanto Chuo University foursome of Ryusuke Hasunama (49.27), Murasa (48.50), Syoon Mitsunaga (47.72) and Yosho Koyama topped the men’s 4x100m free podium in a time of 3:15.04. That easily defeated the 3:16.53 former meet benchmark.
