2023 JAPAN SWIM
- Tuesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 9th
- Prelims at 9:30 am local (8:30 pm previous night EDT)/A-Finals at ~5:00 pm local (4:00 am EDT)
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Qualification Meet For World Championships, World Junior Championships, World University Games, Asian Games
- JPN Selection Criteria
- Entries (in Japanese)
- Day 1 Finals Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap/Day 4 Finals Recap/Day 5 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
The final day of action at the 2023 Japan Swim saw 22-year-old leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee claim her fourth individual title.
Racing in the women’s 50m free, Ikee got to the wall in a time of 24.74, clocking the sole result of the field under the 25-second threshold. Chihiro Igarashi snagged silver in 25.22 while Ai Soma rounded out the top 3 in 25.38 for bronze.
The women were chasing a Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF)-mandated cut of 24.70 needed for Fukuoka, with Ikee falling just .04 outside the standard.
As she already nabbed QT’s in the 100m and 50m fly, it’s possible the federation will add this event to her lineup. But we’ll await the final roster of swimmers and events which will be announced post-competition.
Ikee’s 24.74 now ranks her 10th in the world, tying Australian Olympian Meg Harris.
2022-2023 LCM Women 50 Free
Sjostrom
WR 23.61
| 2 | Abbey Weitzeil | USA | 24.00 | 07/01 |
| 3 | Shayna Jack | AUS | 24.01 | 07/29 |
| 4 | Yufei Zhang | CHN | 24.15 | 07/30 |
| 5 | Emma McKeon | AUS | 24.26 | 06/18 |
| 6 | Meg Harris | AUS | 24.29 | 05/12 |
| 7 | Gretchen Walsh | USA | 24.31 | 07/01 |
| 8 | Cate Campbell | AUS | 24.34 | 05/20 |
| 9 | Kate Douglass | USA | 24.40 | 05/13 |
| 10 | Marrit Steenbergen | NED | 24.42 | 04/09 |
The men’s 1500m freestyle also saw its winner come within striking distance of the Fukuoka time standard but fall painstakingly short.
Shogo Takeda took the victory in a result of 15:06.50, a near-season best. The 28-year-old has already been as quick as 15:04.21 from last December’s Japan Open. He needed to clear the benchmark of 15:00.99 in order to qualify for the World Championships.
Making the grade in her event for the World Championships, however, was 16-year-old World Junior champion Mio Narita.
Narita roared to the wall first in the women’s 400m IM, producing a winning effort of 4:36.89. That garnered her the gold ahead of Ageha Tanigawa who also dipped under the 4:40 barrier with a silver medal-worthy time of 4:37.90. Ichika Kajimoto bagged bronze in 4:40.94.
Narita’s time tonight outperformed her previous season-best of 4:37.32 notched at the Japan Open last December and is within striking distance of her lifetime best of 4:36.71 logged at this meet last year.
Tanigawa’s outing also surpassed what she performed at the Japan Open, a season-best which stood at 4:40.00. She’s been as quick as 4:36.45 in her career from last year’s Japan Trials.
For Narita and Tanigawa, both women cleared the JASF-mandated time standard of 4:38.53 needed to qualify for Fukuoka. Narita remains in slot #4 among the top performers in the world this season while Tanigawa now ranks 5th in the world.
2022-2023 LCM Women 400 IM
McIntosh
WR 4:25.87
| 2 | Katie Grimes | USA | 4:31.41 | 07/30 |
| 3 | Kaylee McKeown | AUS | 4:31.68 | 05/13 |
| 4 | Jenna Forrester | AUS | 4:32.30 | 07/30 |
| 5 | Alex Walsh | USA | 4:34.46 | 07/30 |
Of note, reigning Olympic champion Yui Ohashi opted out of the 400m IM at this meet.
Additional winners on the night included Ryosuke Irie topping the men’s 50m back podium in 25.06 while Satomi Suzuki got it done for gold in the women’s 50m breast in 30.44 for her 10th title in that event. Both marks fell shy of the QTs but Irie has already qualified in the 100m back.
I hope the JASF will not add an event to a person’s lineup if they qualified in one event but didn’t qualify in another.
That defeats the whole purpose of setting qualifying standards.
Plenty of countries add them…
They’ve qualified and someone else hasn’t, why not?
Cuz they didn’t really earn to swim that event.
The qualifying standards are there for a reason. It’s to raise the overall level of Japanese swimming by forcing swimmers to aim for world-class times. If the JASF allows Ikee and other swimmers to add events they didn’t directly qualify for to their schedule just because they were only a few tenths off the qualifying standard, it kinda says “the qualifying standards don’t really matter as long as you qualify in one event for Worlds because you and the Federation can discuss adding potential events to your schedule after the meet.”
Unless the JASF are doing it like the NCAAs where if you make the A cut in one event, you… Read more »
The standards JASF set are entirely arbitrary. Ikee will be at the meet, Japanese relays are not competitive, and the 50 is on the tail end of the schedule. What possible harm is there to letting someone who could make a world championship final swim?
Good to have some standard but truely FINA standard 1 should be good. The selection 3-4 months ahead of the world.champ can give time to train with a focus.
Each country has their own guideline. Canada is even including some swimmers who did not even enter the selection meet.
You must be extremely new at swimming
No matter what happens in Fukuoka, Ikke is already a winner!
Colbert’s 4.35.50 shanahan’s4.36.74?