2016 Japanese Olympic Trials Day 3 Prelims Live Recap

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
• Live Stream
• Results

WOMEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE – PRELIMS

• Japanese National Record – 58.70, Aya Terakawa (2013)
• JPN Olympic Standard – 59.85

The women kicked off their prelims session with a lackluster showing in the 100m backstroke this morning, highlighted primarily by Miyuki Takemura‘s top seed of 1:00.68. Only one other swimmer followed suit with the 1:00 theme in the form of Natsumi Sakai (1:00.81), while the remaining athletes all fell above the minute mark.

Japanese women have been in a slight backstroking drought as of late, signified by the fact that their highest finisher at the 2015 FINA World Championships, Sayaka Akase, only reached 29th place in a mark of 1:01.62. In today’s morning session, Akase settled on the 9th position in her time of 1:01.75

Top 8:

1. Takemura, 1:00.68
2. Sakai, 1:00.81
3. Moronuki, 1:01.07
4. Konishi, 1:01.33
5. Sakai, 1:01.45
6. Kawayoke, 1:01.57
7. Takahashi, 1:01.62
8. Takaba, 1:01.71

WOMEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY

• Japanese National Record – 2:04.69, Natsumi Hoshi (2015)
• JPN Olympic Standard – 2:07.82

The field is tightly packed with no swimmer truly breaking out from the field in the morning. Nao Kobayashi, who was a ‘DNS’ in the event at this same meet last year, clocked the only sub-2:11 mark of the AM swim, leading the flyers with a mark of 2:10.58 to claim the pole position for tonight’s semi-final. She’ll be joined by 15-year-old Suzuka Hasegawa, who earned a time of 2:11.27 for the 2nd seed.

Lurking in the 3rd position is the reigning 200m butterfly World Champion, Natsumi Hoshi, who touched the wall in a time of 2:11.53. That swim was a walk in the park for the 25-year-old, as she already owns the world’s 3rd-fastest time of the season with the 2:06.56 she registered at February’s Konami Open. Her gold medal-winning time of 2:05.56 from Kazan is also a testimony to how fast Hoshi can move when a big reward is on the line.

Top 8:

1. Kobayashi, 2:10.58
2. Hasegawa, 2:11.27
3. Hoshi, 2:11.53
4. Imu, 2:11.70
5. Ohtsuka, 2:11.89
6. Itou, 2:12.01
7. Hirano, 2:12.28
8. Nara, 2:12.29

WOMEN’S 200 IM

• Japanese National Record – 2:08.45, Kanako Watanabe (2015)
• JPN Olympic Standard – 2:11.03

Last year’s winner in the event, Rika Oomoto, found herself as the 4th seed after this morning’s swim, finishing in a modest 2:14.02. Sitting ahead of the 18-year-old is Miho Teramura, who secured the top seed with her morning mark of 2:12.51. That result sits just outside the world’s top 10, but puts Teramura ahead of two aces in Sakiko Shimizu and Kanako Watanabe.

For her part, Shimizu holds the world’s 5th-fastest time in the event this season from her outing at the Konami Open in February. At that meet, Shimizu rocked a time of 2:10.51 to take the meet title and position herself in the upper echelon of IMers around the world.  That performance was swifter than what she produced in Kazan, where Shimizu settled for a 10th place finish overall in 2:11.03.

Watanabe holds the globe’s 11th-swiftest mark of the season with the 2:11.92 she clocked at the New South Wales State Championships in Australia last month. Watanabe found herself as the silver medalist in the event his past summer in Kazan, earning a time of 2:08.45 to finish behind Hungary’s Iron Lady, Katinka Hosszu, who won gold.

Top 8:

1. Teramura, 2:12.51
2. Shimizu, 2:13.35
3. Watanabe, 2:13.61
4. Oomoto, 2:14.02
5. Takahashi, 2:14.05
6. Makino, 2:14.65
7. Ohhashi, 2:14.66
8. Imai, 2:14.98