2016 JAPAN SWIM (JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Monday, April 4th – Sunday, April 10th
- Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center
- Prelims at 10am local/9pm EDT previous night; Finals at 6:30pm local/5:30am EDT
- Japanese Olympic Qualifying Times (Japanese)
- Psych Sheets (Japanese)
- Day 1 Finals Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap/Day 4 Finals Recap
- Live Stream (Prelims)
- Results
Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, returning this season from an elbow injury that cost him the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, has proven himself still a contender in the men’s 200 IM. In Saturday’s final, he swam a 1:55.07, which cut a quarter-of-a-second from his own Japanese National and Asian Records, and also moved him into sole possession of the title of 3rd-fastest performer in the history of the event.
With his success, however, comes disappointment for Daiya Seto, who finished 3rd in the event and won’t make the Japanese Olympic Team. Seto is the defending World Champion in the 400 IM.
Above, watch the race video (actual swimming begins around the 3:30 mark of the video)
As reported by Loretta Race:
Along with the women’s 200m breaststroke, the men’s 200 IM was the race was the marquee event of the night, as multi-event prodigy Kosuke Hagino took to the pool again to follow-up his already stellar 200m freestyle and 400m IM performances.
As expected, Hagino took it out hard and never looked back, racing his way to a new Japanese National Record in 1:55.07, lowering his own pervious mark of 1:55.33 from the 2014 Asian Championships. Already ranked as the fastest in the world this year via his semi swim, Hagino’s statement-making performance tonight now positions him as the 3rd-fastest performer of all time, surpassing Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh to sit only behind mega stars Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps of the United States.
All-Time Performers in Men’s 200 IM
- Ryan Lochte, USA, 1:54.00 (2011)
- Michael Phelps, USA, 1:54.16 (2011)
- Kosuke Hagino, JPN, 1:55.07 (2016)
- Laszlo Cseh, HUN, 1:55.33 (2009)
- Eric Shanteau, USA, 1:55.36 (2009)
Splits for Hagino include 24.43/28.43/34.08/28.13; further analysis will be presented in a separate post.
Shocking, however, is the fact that Hagino’s usual partner-in-IM-crime, Daiya Seto, finished out of an Olympic-qualifying position. Not only did Seto clock a time of 1:58.30, off his season-best of 1:57.72, he finished in 3rd place. Taking advantage of Seto being off his game is 24-year-old Hiromasa Fujimori, who flew to the wall in a time of 1:57.57, well ahead of the Olympic standard of 1:58.02.
Seto already qualified for the Japanese Rio roster in the 400m IM (via being World Champion) and also in the 200m butterfly, but he was a favorite to also earn a berth in this event as well.
The 1:54 still eludes home, but getting very close.
He wasn’t on his back like lochte but I don’t know how the rule book interpret s his back to breast turn but yeah that back to breast turn is fast. Sideways. quite awkward but fast.
I expect a 1:54 mid to high from hagino. All he needs to do is to increase his speed slightly on breaststroke. He,s already done this to some extent.
Similar to comment by nemofish- I have a few observations.
1. He has one of the fastest back/breast turns ive seen. Very impressive.
2. He needs to be careful. The rule states that a swimmer must be on his breast when the pull starts. He looks to he on his side when he separates his hands.
3. Can anyone with more specific knowledge of the rules confirm/deny this?
For me, his backstroke to breaststroke turn doesn’t look rulebook confirm… 4:36
The over the water view gave an interesting look at what appeared to be Hagino pushing off the wall past vertical, slightly on his back during the Back/Breast transition. Will be interesting to see what kind of flip turns we’ll see during the freestyle portion of the 400 IM (especially short course) so that athletes stay within the rules and not on their backs.
Fina won’t do anything because it’s not Ryan Lochte… or an American swimmer
Facepalm
Haha!