Olympic Medalist Tomoru Honda Logs In-Season 1:55.66 200 Fly At Konami Open

2025 KONAMI OPEN

• Saturday, February 15th & Sunday, February 16th
• Tokyo Aquatics Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Day 1 Recap
• Results
• Livestream

The 2025 Konami Open concluded tonight from the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, site of swimming events at the 2020 Olympic Games. The competition marked an important stepping stone along the path to April’s World Championships Trials, allowing swimmers to fine-tune their craft ahead of that all-important competition.

Japan has been a nation consistently racing since the Olympic Games, with the Japan Open taking place late last year followed by the Kosuke Kitajma Cup, Kirara Cup, Tokyo Winter Championships and this Konami Open.

Kicking things off, 2020 Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda took on his pet event of the 200m fly, posting a speedy in-season effort of 1:55.66.

24-year-old Honda opened in 55.63 and closed in 1:00.03 to get the job done, keeping Takumi Terada at a safe distance behind him.

Terada clocked 1:56.56 as the silver medalist while Michitora Kono, the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships bronze medalist in this event, rounded out the podium in 1:58.00.

Honda’s 1:55.66 result this evening now renders the two-time Olympian ranked #2 in the world, with countryman Genki Terakado‘s time of 1:54.73 from last month keeping him on top.

We reported how Honda is still debating about competing at this year’s World Championships but has eyes on the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

Hiroko Makino upgraded her silver in the 100m fly last night to gold in the 200m distance this evening.

25-year-old Makino turned in a time of 2:10.29 to get the edge over Chiho Mizuguchi who settled for silver less than half a second behind in 2:10.67.

15-year-old Umi Ishizuka collected bronze with her result of 2:10.95, establishing a new meet record for her age group.

Ishizuka already made noise this year down under while racing at the South Australian State Open Championships last month. There she blasted a huge personal best of 2:08.54 to become one the fastest performers ever at 15 years of age.

17-year-old Tatsuya Murasa doubled up on his 200m free victory from last night with a gold in the 100m free this evening.

The freestyle ace punched a result of 48.89 (23.42/25.47) to clear the field in the sole time under the 49-second barrier.

Taikan Tanaka was next to the wall in 49.07 followed by Ryu Matsui who earned 49.56 for bronze.

Teen Murasa’s outing fell just .02 outside his lifetime best of 48.87 put up at the Japanese Sports Festival last September. That rendered him Japan’s 11th-speediest performer in history.

University of Tennessee commit Mizuki Hirai was too quick to catch in the women’s 50m fly where she registered a swift 25.99 to get the job done.

That beat the pack by over a second en route to establishing a new season-best. Hirai now ranks #3 in the world in the sprint, sitting only behind teammate Rikako Ikee (25.90) and Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk (25.95).

Taikan Tanaka won the extremely close men’s 50m fly race, posting a gold medal-worthy result of 23.71. A pair of men touched simultaneously for runner-up, with Kota Ichikawa and Naoki Mizunuma each coming away with silver in 23.73 tonight.

33-year-old Olympic finalist Satomi Suzuki was the top women’s 100m breaststroker, hitting 1:06.62 to lead the field.

2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships gold medalist Kotomi Kato was next to the wall in 1:07.42 and Yuyumi Obatake rounded out the podium in 1:08.04.

Suzuki owns a lifetime best of 1:05.91 in this event from last year so it’s a good sign the veteran is already less than a second off that mark at this non-championship meet.

Yesterday we saw Yamato Fukasawa beat Ippei Watanabe dual in the men’s 200m breast, with the pair putting up super strong times of 2:07.24 and 2:07.53, respectively.

Tonight’s 100m breast saw the duo switch up spots, with Watanabe touching first in 1:00.12 followed by Fukasawa’s 1:00.28. Taku Taniguchi also landed on the podium in 1:00.51.

As deep as Japan is in the 200m breaststroke, they’re still looking for at least one man who can consistently delve under the minute barrier in the 100m sprint. Taniguchi represented Japan in the event at last year’s Olympics but managed just 1:00.20 to place 19th overall out of the heats.

Additional Notes

• Shiho Matsumoto doubled up on day one’s 100m fly victory with a gold in the women’s 200 IM. She managed a time of  2:10.48 to win by well over 2 seconds. 18-year-old Olympian Mio Narita logged 2:13.08 and versatile Waka Kobori notched 2:13.88. Matsumoto’s effort was within striking distance of her 2:09.90 PB from last year’s Olympic Trials.
• Kobori dove in again this evening to race the women’s 400m free. She struck gold in a time of 4:11.20 to complete the tough double.
• The men’s 200m IM saw Takumi Mori dip under the 2:00 barrier, logging 1:59.13 to top the podium. Nishikawa Gasaki and Riki Abe were also both under 2:00, with the former clocking 1:59.63 to the latter’s 1:59.65.
• Rio Suzuki got it done for gold in the women’s 100m free, registering 55.74 as the sole swimmer to earn a result under 56 seconds.
• Keita Sunama put up a time of 1:58.29 to win the men’s 200m back, hitting the only time under 2:00.
• The women’s 200m back saw Chiaki Yamamoto produce a winning effort of 2:11.13 while Miki Takahashi won the women’s 50m back in a result of 28.79 tonight.