The hype is real. 18-year old Japanese star Akihiro Yamaguchi demonstrated Wednesday at the Japanese Junior Olympics (their equivalent of Junior Nationals) that he is more-than-ready to grab the torch as the country’s top breaststroker and run with it, after a 2:07.57 that missed Kosuke Kitajima’s National Record by just .06 seconds on the 4th day of swimming competition.
Yamaguchi was purported to be gunning for the World Record at the Junior Pan Pacs last week, though he wasn’t able to swim quite as well off of home turf – just a 2:08.0. This, however, makes the third-straight week that he’s been a 2:08.0 or better in this event. He jumps a spot to 6th in the all-time rankings (Japan has four out of the top ten) and has a new High School National Record.
Yamaguchi always finishes very well in this event (even better than the infamous finisher, the Olympic Champion and World Record holder Daniel Gyurta), but in this race his front-half was as good as it’s looked. He was out in 1:02.19, and back in a 1:05.38. Watching those two go at it in Barcelona next year should be quite a performance.
Another young Japanese superstar Kosuke Hagino had a fantastic swim on Wednesday as well. He won the men’s 100 back in 53.82, which is his second backstroke National High School Record of the meet.
A third National Record went down in the men’s 100 free, as Kenta Hirai won the men’s 100 fre e in 49.49.