2017 Japan Swim Day 1 Finals Recap: Hagino & Seto Showdown

JAPAN SWIM 2017 (JAPANESE NATIONALS)

• Thursday, April 13th – Sunday, April 16th, 2017
• NGK Arena, Nagoya, Japan
• Qualification Meet for 2017 World Championships, World University Games and World Junior Championships
• Prelims at 9:30am local/8:30pm (night before) EDT; Finals at 6pm local/5am EDT
• Meet Information
• Entry List (in Japanese)
• Live Stream
• Live Results

WOMEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• FINA A – 4:10.57
• The Podium:
  • Chihiro Igarashi – 4:08.28 * QT
  • Waka Kobori – 4:10.81
  • Wakaba Tsuyuuchi – 4:11.77

The 12th place finisher in Rio, Chihiro Igarashi, nabbed the gold tonight in Nagoya, clocking a time of 4:08.28 to win her 2nd consecutive national title. Chihiro’s personal best sits at her 4:07.52 from the Olympic heats, but tonight checks-in as the 2nd fastest performance of her career. Late last year she scored another 4:08 time with the 4:08.69 that won gold at the Asian Swimming Championships.

The 22-year-old’s result was the only one of tonight’s final to dip under the FINA A cut of 4:10.57 and Igarashi now sits in the 14th position in the world rankings. For comparison, the Australian National Championships, which concluded today, saw 16-year-old Ariarne Titmus claim the title in 4:04.82.

WOMEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

• FINA A – 26.49
• The Podium:
  • Rikako Ikee – 25.51 * QT
  • Ai Souma – 26.62
  • Yukina Hirayama – 26.80

Another race, another gold medal for 16-year-old Rikako Ikee. The reigning world junior record holder in this event just missed her personal best and national record of 25.50 by .01 of a second, clocking the only sub-26 time of tonight’s field. 25.51 got the job done for Ikee, with teammates Ai Souma and Yukina Hirayama finished with times of 26.62 and 26.80 for silver and bronze, respectively.

Ikee maintains her ‘2nd in the world’ status in this non-Olympic event but overtakes her own 2017 best of 25.71 set at February’s Konami Open.

MEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

• FINA A – 23.67
• The Podium:
  • Junya Hasegawa – 23.50 *QT
  • Syunichi Nakao – 23.64 *QT
  • Takeshi Kawamoto – 23.67 *QT

In a sea of 23-points, Junya Hasegawa came out on top of the men’s 50m butterfly race, charging to the wall in a winning time of 23.50. That mark is just .05 off of the 23.45 national record, a time by Ryo Takayasu which has stood since the 2009 supersuit era. Hasegawa’s time in this non-Olympic and, therefore, not contested last year, event now sits within the world’s top 10 outings on the season.

MEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

• FINA A – 4:17.90
• The Podium:
  • Daiya Seto – 4:10.44 *QT
  • Kosuke Hagino – 4:10.45 *QT
  • Takeharu Fujimori – 4:11.26 *QT

The first mega showdown between Olympians Daiya Seto and Kosuke Hagino took place tonight in the men’s 400m IM and the podium looks identical in terms of players from the 2016 edition . Last year, Hagino won in 4:08.90 to Seto’s 4:13.52, with Fujimori in bronze in 4:14.77.

Seto got revenge on the national title battle tonight, however, winning the race by the slimmest of margins. Entering the meet, Seto held the world’s 2nd fastest outing with the 4:10.17 notched at last November’s Asian Swimming Championships. Tonight, he was right in that ballpark, clocking a mark of 4:10.44 for the big win and World Championships qualification.

Hagino, who has been off racing due to his endoscopic elbow surgery last fall, made his post-recovery debut in Madrid, where he scored a modest (by his standards) 4:15.23 400m IM with virtually no competition in the race. Just one month later he drops about 5 seconds to finish in 4:10.45, a time that now rests just behind Seto in the world rankings. Hagino won gold in Rio in this event, touching in 4:06.05 for a new Asian Record. He followed that up with a 200m IM silver, an event in which Seto and Hagino will duel again here in Nagoya later in the meet.

MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• FINA A – 48.93
• The Podium:
  • Katsumi Nakamura – 48.26 *QT
  • Shinri Shioura – 48.80 *QT
  • Katsuhiri Matsumoto – 49.02

All but one of the 8 men in tonight’s 100m freestyle final nabbed a sub-50 second outing, with the top 2 finishers under the 49 second mark. National record holder Kasumi Nakamura led the field with an impressive time of 48.26, a mark not too terribly off his national record of 47.99 from the Olympics. With that result, Nakamura became the first Japanese ever under 48 seconds and he’s well on his way to potentially hitting that same realm come Budapest.

He’ll be joined by teammate Shinri Shioura, the World Short Course silver medalist in this event. Shioura clocked 48.80 to post the 6th fastest time of the 25-year-old’s career. Shioura was 48.35 in this event at last year’s edition of the meet, but dropped down to a 48.94 in Rio to finish 27th overall.

WOMEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:07.58
• The Podium:
  • Reona Aoki – 1:06.77 *QT
  • Satomi Suzuki – 1:06.91 *QT
  • Kanako Watanabe 1:07.09

The world’s current 100m breaststroke leader, Reona Aoki, overtook her competitors tonight, stopping the clock at a swift 1:06.77. Although that’s off of the 1:05.29 she scored at January’s New Year Swimming Meet, the mark is still internationally competitive and got the job done for qualification.

Right behind was Satomi Suzuki, the bronze medalist in this event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Within range of her 1:06.46 medal-garnering performance from back then, 26-year-old Suzuki clocked 1:06.91 toight to also qualify for the World Championships squad.

Kanako Watanabe won the bronze in 1:07.09, but the 4th place finisher from 2015 finished 3rd and out of contention to swim this in Budapest.

MEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:00.35
• The Podium:
  • Yasuhiro Koseki – 59.26 *QT
  • Ippei Watanabe – 1:00.11 *QT
  • Yoshiki Yamanaka – 1:00.46

The men’s 100m breaststroke gold medal went to 2016 Olympic finalist Yasuhiro Koseki, who nabbed the only time to dip beneath the 1 minute barrier tonight. Clocking 59.26, Koseki just moved himself to 3rd in the world rankings. His impressive mark tonight also beats the 59.37 he produced in Rio for an overall 6th place finish.

Also beating the FINA A cut and finishing 2nd is Ippei Watanabe, Japan’s newest world record holder in the 200m breaststroke event. Watanabe is the first man to ever earn a sub-2:07 result in the longer distance, so all eyes will be on his come that race later in the meet. In the meantime, Watanabe punched his Budapest ticket in this  sprint event to kick off his campaign.