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WR Holder Watanabe Fires Off 4th Fastest 200 Breast Ever

2019 JAPAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Coming within half a second of his own 2:06.67 World Record in the men’s 200m breast tonight in Tokyo was Ippei Watanabe.

While competing on the penultimate night of the 2019 Japanese Swimming Championships, one of two qualifying meets for the nation to get on the World Championships roster, the 22-year-old Waseda University graduate crushed a mega winning tie of 2:07.02 to rock the 4th fastest 200m breast performance of all time.

Watanabe planned his finals swim masterfully, clocking 2:12.01 in the prelims followed by a quick 2:09.36 in last night’s semi-final. Tonight, however, Watanabe opened in a super-sized 1:00.79, a FINA B cut for Worlds in itself, and closed in 1:06.23 to finish in 2:07.02.

Below are the only performances faster than Watanabe’s tonight:

#1 – 2:06.67 Ippei Watanabe JPN 10th Tokyo Swimming Championships 1/27/2017 Tokyo
#2 – 2:06.80 Anton Chupkov RUS 2018 European Champs 8/6/2018 Glasgow
#3 – 2:07.01 Akihiro Yamaguchi JPN 9/15/2012 Gifu Prefecture

In terms of the current season rankings, Watanabe destroys his 2:08.16 from earlier this year and easily sits atop the throne as best in the world right now.

2018-2019 LCM MEN 200 BREAST

AntonRUS
CHUPKOV
07/26
2.06.12 *WR
2Matthew
WILSON
AUS2.06.6707/25
3Ippei
WATANABE
JPN2.06.7307/26
4Zach
Stubblety-Cook
AUS2.07.3607/26
5James
WILBY
GBR2.07.4904/19
View Top 26»

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ytho
5 years ago

Small correction: faster performers, not “performances”. Chupkov has 2 swims under 2:07, one from Glasgow, one from Budapest

Retta Race
Reply to  ytho
5 years ago

Good catch – updated!

Anonymoose
Reply to  Retta Race
5 years ago

Well not yet. Now its just the 2.06,96 replaced with 2.06,80, not added. (For me rn)

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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