Three-Time Olympian Rikako Ikee Misses 100 Fly Asian Games Qualification

101st JAPAN SWIM

• Thursday, March 19th – Sunday, March 22nd
• Tokyo Aquatics Center
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Live Results

The 101st Japan Swim saw day one unfold from the Tokyo Aquatics Center, bringing about some shakeups to lists of the nation’s best-ever performers.

Already we saw a World Junior Record go down at the hands of 17-year-old Shin Ohashi in the men’s 100m breaststroke, while Shoon Mitsunaga hit a new Japanese standard in the men’s 50m fly. Finally, Kazushi Imafuku established a new 400m free Japanese National High School Record.

• Shin Ohashi’s 100m breast WJR
• Shoon Mitsunaga’s 50m fly JPN Record
• Kazushi Imafuku’s 400m free JPN HS Record

There were additional notable performances, including a solid 100m fly swim by three-time Olympian Rikako Ikee.

25-year-old Ikee produced a time of 57.49 to beat her competitors by nearly a second on her way to reaping the gold.

Ikee opened in 26.57 and closed in 30.92 to get the job done, relegating Hiroko Makino and Nagisa Ikemoto to the minor medals. The former secured silver in 58.32 while the latter captured bronze a hair later in 58.34.

Ikee’s sub-58 second outing checks in as a new season-best, overtaking the 58.13 she notched at last month’s Konami Open; however, it fell short of the 56.93 qualification standard needed to race the event at this year’s Asian Games.

At the 2018 edition of the Games, the national record holder was the first-ever female to earn the MVP award after remarkably taking home eight pieces of hardware. It was just a handful of months later when she learned of her leukemia diagnosis, a disease in which Ikee has been in remission since 2024.

The women’s 400m free saw World Championships open water gold medalist Ichika Kajimoto establish a new lifetime best as she claimed the gold.

The 22-year-old punched a time of 4:06.61 as the decisive winner, defeating Waka Kobori (4:09.04) and Ruka Takezawa (4:09.13) who earned respective silver and bronze.

Kajimoto managed to slice .20 off her prior PB of 4:06.81 notched last September.

Additional Notes

• Shiho Matsumoto held off World Championships silver medalist Mio Narita in the women’s 200m IM. Matsumoto scored the sole time of the field under the 2:10 barrier, hitting 2:09.39 to get to the wall first. Narita was next in 2:10.14 and Shiki Takayama delivered 2:12.98 for bronze. Matsumoto ranks just outside the list of top 5 performers worldwide on the season.
• The women’s 100m back saw Rio Shirai post 1:00.20 with Kyoka Sawa just under half a second behind in 1:00.66. Aimi Nagaoka rounded out the podium in 1:00.81.
• Hidekazu Takehara was too quick to catch in the men’s 100m back putting up a swim of 53.66 for the victory. Yumeki Kojima snagged the silver in 54.12 and Riku Matsumaya earned bronze in 54.34. Takehara takes over slot #5 in the season’s world rankings.