17-Yr-Old Olympian Konosuke Yanagimoto Takes 200 Free JPN High School Title

89TH JAPAN INTER-HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, August 17th – Friday, August 20th
• Nagano Athletic Park
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap
• Results (in Japanese)

The 89th Japan Inter-High School Swimming Championships rolled on here Nagano, with day 2 bringing the men’s 200m freestyle as the blue ribbon event.

Coming off his Olympic debut at this year’s Games in his home nation, 17-year-old Konosuke Yanagimoto topped the race in a time of 1:48.41. Opening in 52.19 and closing in 56.22, Yanagimoto beat the field by well over a second en route to gold.

After the race, Yanagimoto said he ‘felt tired’ after the Olympics, where the man competed as a member of Japan’s 4x200m free relay. Teen Yanagimoto led his relay off in the heats with a time of 1:48.50 but the squad’s collective mark of 7:09.53 rendered them well back in 12th and out of the final.

The teen represented the youngest member of the Japanese Olympic swimming team since medalist Kosuke Hagino made the squad at the same age for the 2012 London Olympic Games. He posted a lifetime best of 1:47.45 at the Japan Olympic Trials to make the team.

Yanagimoto will also be contesting the 100m free individual event here at these championships later in the week.

The women’s 200m fly tonight in Nagano saw a strong swim put up by Kotomi Yamagishi. Yamagishi hit one of the two sub-2:10 times of the field in 2:08.66. She roared out the lead in an opening split of 1:00.72, leaving runner-up Mitsui Airi to play catch up. Airi touched in 2:0942 for silver tonight.

The men’s 200m fly saw the top 5 finishers all touch in the 1:58-zone, led by winner Riku Kitagawa. He produced a gold medal-worthy 1:58.04 to out-touch Yoshine Nagao by only .08.

Additional winners included Aimi Nagaoka taking the women’s 100m back in 1:01.19 while Hidekazu Takehara won the men’s race in 55.44 this evening.