SWIMMING AT THE 2018 ASIAN GAMES
- August 19th-24th, 2018
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Schedule & Results
The penultimate day of the 2018 Asian Games wraps up tonight with six medal events. China’s Xu Jiayu seeks a backstroke sweep for 2018, sitting second in the 200 back after winning the 50 and 100 earlier on. Meanwhile, Chinese teammates Li Bingjie (who won the 200 free) and Wang Jianjiahe (who won the 1500) will meet in the 800 free, clashing for gold.
Joseph Schooling kicks things off tonight, looking to add a 50 fly gold to his 100 fly win from earlier in the week. In other men’s action, China looks to maintain its sweep of the men’s freestyles, with 50 free champ Yu Hexin leading the 100 free in a prelims tie with Jordan’s Khader Baqlah.
Japan’s Satomi Suzuki set an Asian Games record this morning in the 50 breast, going 31.02, and she’ll battle for gold tonight. The night will finish with the women’s 4×100 medley relay, where Rikako Ikee will try to power Japan to another relay title, though China is lurking about a second behind after prelims.
Keep refreshing this page for live, event-by-event updates of all the action from Jakarta.
MEN’S 50 FLY – Finals
- Asian Record: 22.93, Joseph Schooling (SGP), 2017
- Asian Games Record: 23.46, Shi Yang (CHN), 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: Joseph Schooling (SGP) – 23.61
- SILVER: Wang Peng (CHN) – 23.65
- BRONZE: Adilbek Mussin (KAZ) – 23.73
Singaporean star Joseph Schooling took home his second gold of the 2018 meet and his 7th career Asian Games medal with a 23.61 win in the 50 fly. The win was much closer than expected for the Asian record-holder, with China’s Wang Peng just .04 seconds back with the silver medal. Both Schooling and Wang cut about two tenths from their prelims times.
While the race was good, the times were not – they rank well outside the top 30 in the world this year. On the other hand, another gold for Singapore should put them just one medal behind South Korea for third overall in total medals.
Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin won bronze in 23.73, just the second medal of these Games for his nation. He narrowly beat out Shunichi Nakao (23.88) of Japan and Li Zhuhao (23.89) of China.
WOMEN’S 50 BREAST – Finals
- Asian Record: 30.46, Chen Huijia (CHN), 2009
Asian Games Record: 31.02, Satomi Suzuki (JPN), 2018
Medalists:
- GOLD: Satomi Suzuki (JPN) – 30.83
- SILVER: Ru En Roanne Ho (SGP) – 31.23
- BRONZE: Feng Junyang (CHN) – 31.24
Japan’s Satomi Suzuki broke the Games record for the second time in a day, going 30.83 to win the women’s 50 breast. Suzuki becomes the first sub-31 Asian Games champion and is now within a half-second of the overall Asian record.
Like Schooling in the men’s butterflys, the 27-year-old Suzuki has now swept the 50 and 100 breaststrokes at this meet. Japan was set to sweep silver and bronze, but second-place Miho Teramura was disqualified from the event, bumping Singapore’s Ru En Roanne Ho to the silver medal. Ho, 25, gives Singapore its 5th medal, tying South Korea in the overall medal table.
China took third and fourth with Feng Junyang and Suo Ran. Feng was the bronze medalist in 31.24, with Suo’s 31.42 finishing just outside the medals.
MEN’S 100 FREE – Finals
- Asian Record: 47.65, Ning Zetao (CHN), 2014
- Asian Games Record: 47.70, Ning Zetao (CHN), 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: Shinri Shioura (JPN) – 48.71
- SILVER: Katsumi Nakamura (JPN) – 48.72
- BRONZE: Yu Hexin (CHN) – 48.88
Though China had swept all four men’s freestyle golds so far, Japan broke through for not just gold but silver in the men’s 100 free. Shinri Shioura tore to the win in lane 3, with Katsumi Nakamura coming from his outside in lane 2 to pick up silver. Shioura was 48.71 and Nakamura 48.72.
Neither swim was a season-best. Shioura was 48.68 at Pan Pacs and Nakamura 47.87 at the Kosuke Kitajima Cup. But they got their hands on the wall first, breaking up a Chinese sweep in the men’s freestyles and maintaining their nation’s narrow lead in the medal table.
China’s Yu Hexin, who won the 50 free earlier in the week, fell to bronze in 48.88 – he, too, was 48.6 earlier this year.
China also took 4th with Hou Yujie (48.95) and Jordan’s Khader Baqlah was 49.10 for fifth.
WOMEN’S 800 FREE – Timed Finals
- Asian Record: 8:15.46, Li Bingjie (CHN), 2017
Asian Games Record: 8:23.55, Li Xuanxu (CHN), 2010
Medalists:
- GOLD: Wang Jianjiahe (CHN) – 8:18.55
- SILVER: Li Bingjie (CHN) – 8:28.14
- BRONZE: Waka Kobori (JPN) – 8:30.65
China’s 16-year-old sensations dueled for the 800 free title, with the slightly younger of the two coming out on top. Wang Jianjiahe was 8:18.55, swimming away from Li Bingjie for a nearly-ten-second victory.
That’s the second time this year that Wang has swum an 8:18 – she was 8:18.09 in March and sits 5th worldwide. The gold pairs with her 1500 free win earlier in the week and leaves Wang with three golds so far. (The third came as part of the 4×200 free relay). Wang also breaks the 8-year-old meet record.
Li was 8:28.14 to earn silver and her fourth overall medal. Li won the 200 free and was on that 4×200 free relay, while she’s been second in the 800 and 1500.
Japan was third and fourth with Waka Kobori (8:30.65) and Yukimi Moriyama (8:40.71).
MEN’S 200 BACK – Finals
- Asian Record: 1:52.51, Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 2009
- Asian Games Record: 1:53.26, Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 2014
Medalists:
- GOLD: Xu Jiayu (CHN) – 1:53.99
- SILVER: Ryosuke Irie (JPN) – 1:55.11
- BRONZE: Keita Sunama (JPN) – 1:55.54
China’s Xu Jiayu capped a sweep of all three backstrokes in Jakarta, going 1:53.99 to win the 200 back. He becomes the third man this season to go 1:53, joining the winners from this summer’s other two major competitions: European Championships (Evgeny Rylov, 1:53.36) and Pan Pacific Championships (Ryan Murphy, 1:53.57). Xu also breaks the Chinese National and Asian Games records.
Japan took both minor medals. Ryosuke Irie was 1:55.11, slightly improving his 1:55.12 from Pan Pacs. He now sits #4 worldwide this season. And Keita Sunama was third in 1:55.54.
China’s Li Guangyuan (1:57.13) was fourth as there was a big dropoff between each position after the medalists.
WOMEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY – Finals
- Asian Record: 3:52.19, China, 2009
Asian Games Record: 3:57.80, China, 2010
Medalists:
- GOLD: Japan – 3:54.73
- SILVER: China – 3:59.51
- BRONZE: Korea – 4:02.33
Japan tore through the field to win the women’s medley, giving them golds in two of the three women’s relays this week. Once again, Rikako Ikee was the powerhouse, splitting 55.80 on fly, but Japan also had 100 breast champ Satomi Suzuki (split unlisted) and 100 back champ Natsumi Sakai (59.42 leadoff) to go with 100 fly champ Ikee and anchor Tomomi Aoki.
The Japanese team went 3:54.73, blowing out the field by almost five seconds and smashing the Asian Games record by more than three.
China was the only other team under four minutes, but were disqualified out of the silver medal spot. No splits were available, but China started the team of Chen Jie, Shi Jingin, Zhang Yufei and Zhu Mengui to go 3:59.51 before the DQ.
Korea beat Hong Kong by about eight tenths of a second in what looked like the new race for silver, but Korea, too, was DQ’d after going 4:02.33. Hong Kong was 4:03.15 and ultimately bumped up to the silver medal with the team of Stephanie Au, Jamie Yeung, Chan Kin Lok and Camille Cheng. Singapore’s 4:09.65 moved all the way up to bronze medal status.
Joe got paid and on paper he did what had to do but I think he needs better training/ coaching than his current situation at home. I caught the finish to that interview where he says he looks forward to some time off. He only entered two meets since March and now he wants time off so I see him just training for one season a year now which will lead to a gradual decline. My theory is that Eddie accelerated his improvement curve to allow him to win the gold in Rio. He easily could have trained elsewhere over the years and done his 51.0 this week and we would all would be buzzing about his chances in 2020… Read more »
I agree with you. I was very surprised too when he said he wants time off and he spoke during the meet about not getting enough sleep as he has to wake up early for warm up. Seriously? The Japanese and Chinese swimmers have multiple events….. I follow professional triathletes very closely and when I hear them being interviewed many talk about still wanting to be very active during the off season and actually enjoying training and just being out and about as even their way of spending time because they truly just enjoy that and mind you their training is extremely tough. At this very top level, you can’t just keep talking about breaks and time off and all… Read more »
Hey … Lay off Joe, k?
He’s made big sacrifices. No more fizzy drinks for him.
Anyone know why didn’t he enter the 100 free? 50fly-100free double seems pretty doable given the time between them, unless he’s really out of shape…
In the video interview above, he mentioned it was because the two events “clashed” (same day).
The 100 free is almost back to back with the 50 fly for heats and finals schedule. 50 Women breaststroke was the event separating the 2 events. 15-20 mins interval. It would be very difficult to catch a breath and switch mode to be ready as for 50 heats events, u really need to put the pedal to the metal to earn a place in the finals. If the events had been further apart, looking at the times of the heats for the 100 free, he would have made it to final and stood a medal chance, especially after his very decent performance for the 4 x 200 free relay.
Joseph Schooling on winning his second gold:
https://youtu.be/WAVOkm66ZSA
Satomi Suzuki’s split was a 1:05.43
Yeah it sad to not see him better his 2016 time, but he’s still hanging in there.
Why is it sad?
He’s just won 2 Asian Games golds.
In a way I agree with you, but his time at Rio was unprecedented for any butterfly swimmers at that time. So for me, I would expect low 51 or high 50 on a consistent basis. Off celebrating/switch-off post Rio was a given and is a MUST!! Imagine if u were to train day in day out for all your life for this very very very difficult target and u were to achieve it, what would u do? I am happy to see that he has settled in a decent middle ground right now. Looking forward to see him buildup for the World Games next year and Tokyo 2020.
Ummmm Phelps DIDN’T do it. In 2010-11 his times were slow af compared to his previous 2007-2009 period.
It’s hard to find motivation when you are already an Olympic Champion, treated as a national hero, and a multi Millionaire.
Phelps did it. Some swimmers let the fame get to them and it’s hard to find motivation after that. The great ones don’t.
Good for Phelps is that he was nos Australian… Thorpe career was pretty much destroyed by a Toxic Media.. DOn´t know if Phelps would keep up for long with a Toxic Enviroment
Not everyone is Phelps. Also, Phelps treatment by US media or public after 2004 Olympics is nowhere near treatment for Schooling. In a way, US swimmers are fortunate that swimming are not that high profile and they are not the only successful sports internationally.
Remember, Schooling’s gold was Singapore’s first and only Olympics gold medal. Before Schooling, Singapore had only won 4 medals since 1948.
How did you make a jump from “it is hard to find that motivation” to “his best days are over”.
I am only making observation about the present while you already concluded his future. I don’t know if he can get back to his best or not, I can’t predict the future.
True they should do the sequel to crazy rich Asians with Joe in the starring role.
I don’t know about this. 2 more years to Olympics. It depends how well he adjusts these 2 years. I feel Schooling is lacking of physical fitness, explosiveness has declined. Got tired easily..
Fifth gold medal for Ikee. Would have been sixth if not for the 200 free sabotage by Japanese coaches.
She actually didn’t swim 200 free at Japan Nationals so she didn’t qualify. It’s not the fault of the coaches.
Why didn’t she swim 200 free at Japanese Nationals?
She said she wanted to focus on butterfly events this year, but I believe she’ll rethink about that after Pan Pacs.
50 fly, 100 fly and 200 free is a good combination for her. It’s almost unlikely for her to medal in 50 & 100 free at World Championships or Olympics.
With her fly speed and technique and 200 endurance, it makes you wonder what she could go in a 200 fly. She has the 100 speed it’s going to take to get past that stupid fast world record. Could she be the one?
200 free endurance doesn’t translate to 200 fly endurance because 200 free is basically a long sprint.
You have to look for her 400 endurance. Does she have it? What’s her 400 free time?
Sarah Sjostrom would be a better candidate as she has swum 4:06 while not specifically training for it. But she hates 200 fly and doesn’t she swim it.
Phelps has 400 endurance. Ditto past great 200 flyers.
200 Back is getting big.. a 1:55 will not make the medal cut at all.. Kolesnkinov will get another change at YOG so a 1:54 low is not out of question.. by 2019/2010 a sub 1:54 might be locked out of medals with the four at their best..