USA Takes 5 Golds, Medals Table Lead After Day 1 of Pan Pacs

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

The United States, looking for their 5th-straight medals table win at the Pan Pac Championships, is off to a big start with already 5 gold medals after 1 day of competition – in spite of a session where, generally, the Americans were well-off their best times.

The meet schedule is a little different from 2014 (the 100 breast moved to day 1 in stead of the 100 back, the 400 IM moved in place of the 200 fly, and the distance races were moved around within the session), but this is already one more gold medal than the US had after day 1 in 2014 (4). It’s also one more total medal, but that can be accounted for by the extra event – the mixed medley.

Japan’s improved depth, especially on the women’s side, since 2014 shows up big in the medals table as well. They only had 4 after day 1 of the 2014 edition of this meet, which is now up to 9 – including knocking off the World Record holding American mixed medley relay for silver.

Australia ranks 3rd with 5 medals on a day of mixed results for them; they had a number of swimmers perform well, especially Cate Campbell, who looks like she’s got many more medals to win this week after a 50.93 relay anchor, but the day 1 events aren’t broadly the strengths of the Australian team, so their push should come on day 2 with the 100 freestyle and backstroke races. Mitch Larkin, who went sub-53 for the first time since Rio on the mixed medley leadoff, should become a bigger factor in the 100 backstroke for them than might have been expected based on recent results.

Day 1 Medalists:

Women’s 800 free

1. GOLD: Katie Ledecky, USA, 8:09.13
2. SILVER: Ariarne Titmus, AUS, 8:17.07
3. BRONZE: Leah Smith, USA, 8:17.21

Men’s 1500 free

1. GOLD: Jordan Wilimovsky, USA, 14:46.93
2. SILVER: Zane Grothe, USA, 14:48.40
3. BRONZE: Jack McLoughlin, AUS, 14:55.92

Women’s 100 breast

1. GOLD: Lilly King, USA, 1:05.44
2. SILVER: Jessica Hansen, AUS, 1:06.20
3. BRONZE: Reona Aoki, JPN, 1:06.34

Men’s 100 breast

1. GOLD: Yasuhiro Koseki, JPN, 59.08
2. SILVER: Jake Packard, AUS, 59.20
3. BRONZE: Joao Gomes, BRA, 59.60

Women’s 200 free

1. GOLD: Taylor Ruck, CAN, 1:54.44 (Canadian, Commonwealth Record)
2. SILVER: Rikako Ikee, JPN, 1:54.85
3. BRONZE: Katie Ledecky, USA, 1:55.16

Men’s 200 free

1. GOLD: Townley Haas, USA, 1:45.56
2. SILVER: Andrew Seliskar, USA, 1:45.74
3. BRONZE: Katsuhiro Matsumoto, JPN, 1:45.92

Women’s 400 IM

1. GOLD: Yui Ohashi, JPN, 4:33.77
2. SILVER:  Melanie Margalis, USA, 4:35.60
3. BRONZE: Sakiko Shimizu, JPN, 4:36.27

Men’s 400 IM

1. GOLD: Chase Kalisz, USA, 4:07.95
2. SILVER: Kosuke Hagino, JPN, 4:11.13
3. BRONZE: Daiya Seto, JPN, 4:12.60

Mixed 400 Medley

1. GOLD: AUS, 3:38.91 (Australia, Commonwealth Record)
2. SILVER: JPN, 3:40.98 (Japanese Record)
3. BRONZE: USA, 3:41.74