2018 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, August 9 – Tuesday, August 14, 2018
- Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo, Japan
- Meet site
- Psych Sheet
- Start Lists
- Meet Results
16-year old Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee, who raced out of heat 1 of the women’s 100 fly, has broken the Meet Record in the event in prelims on Saturday. She swam a 56.90, which breaks the old record of 57.30 set by Australian Jessicah Schipper in 2006.
Ikee was out in 26.51, and finished in 30.39. In her best swims, she’s back in under 30 seconds. She’s already shown the ability to do enough in prelims, and then put up big drops in finals, at this meet: in the aforementioned 200, she went from a 1:56.8 in prelims to a 1:54.8 in finals. In the 100 free, she went from a 54.1 to a 53.1. A similar drop in the 100 fly would give her a chance become the third woman in history under 56 seconds in the event.
Schipper, the same swimmer whose Meet Record Ikee broke, is also the swimmer that Ikee tied for 5th on the all-time swimmer rankings in the event earlier this y ear when she swam 56.23 at the Monaco stop of the Mare Nostrum Series.
She was born in July of 2000, so she is no longer 16 years old.
I was going to say…that can’t be correct. Ikee was the revelation of world juniors last summer but I was sure she was already beyond 16 at that point.
Once I saw her last summer I knew there would be high profile so-called upsets, and not far into the future. Not surprised at all at the defeat of Ledecky. Ikee is a phenomenal talent.
Yes, born in 2000, a golden year for swimming.
She was already protagonist at Singapore World Juniors 2015.
Amazing talent and probably the lone who can challenge Sarah Sjostrom in 50 and 100 fly in the next two seasons.