2018 MARE NOSTRUM SERIES – MONACO
- June 16th-17th, 2018
- LCM (50m) pool
- Monaco
- Stop 3 of 3: Prelims/Finals
- Meet Central
- Live Results
While competing on the final day of the final stop of this year’s Mare Nostrum Series, 26-year-old Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan knocked out two significant national records. Racing his way to 100m breaststroke gold ahead of international rivals Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands along with Russians Anton Chupkov and Kirill Prigoda, Koseki nailed a monster personal best of 58.78 to overtake the old Japanese national record of 58.90 held by the legendary Kosuke Kitajima.
Entering this weekend’s racing, Koseki’s career-fastest was the 58.96 clocked at this year’s Japan Swim, a mark that came within .06 of Kitajima’s renowned record. His new feat of 58.78, however, keeps the Olympian ranked only behind British maestro Adam Peaty in the world rankings, but creeps him closer to the world record holder’s world-leading time of 58.39. For perspective, Koseki’s 58.78 would have won bronze in Rio and silver at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest.
2017-2018 LCM MEN 100 BREAST
PEATY
57.10*WR
| 2 | James WILBY | GBR | 58.64 | 08/04 |
| 3 | Yasuhiro KOSEKI | JPN | 58.86 | 08/22 |
| 4 | Anton CHUKOV | RUS | 58.96 | 08/04 |
| 5 | Zibei YAN | CHN | 58.97 | 09/01 |
And the Japanese speedster wasn’t done in Monaco as he beat out the aforementioned Prigoda in the 50m breaststroke shoot-out with a final time of 26.94. That, too, checks-in as a new national record, giving Koseki both sprint breaststroke marks over LCM. He already held Japan’s fastest times in history over SCM, holding times of 26.06 and 56.34 in the 50 and 100, respectively.
Both of Koseki’s 50m and 100m winning times from Monaco also establish new meet records for the Pan Pacs-bound athlete, giving him extra momentum to face the likes of potential Americans Kevin Cordes, Cody Miller, Michael Andrew and Andrew Wilson, among others on his home turf of Tokyo this August. In fact, Koseki was on our SwimSwam ‘ones to watch’ over the next two years as his home nation gets ready to host not only Pan Pacs, but also the 2020 Olympic Games.
Although no longer on the national record board for individual events, Kitajima still remains as a legendary and historic figure for winning back-to-back Olympic gold medals in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke distances at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games.
Breaststroke is looking really packed this year.
The breaststroke races at the Pan Pacs will be one of the more competitive events. The Japanese and Americans are both swimming in the 58s for the 100 and 2:07 for the 200.
With a faster 100 time, Koseki might be setting himself up to join the elite 2:06 club in the 200 breast.
Good thing he’s headed to Auburn next year to join Brooks Merkle’s training group
W o w. They can compare how low their body fat percentages are lol.
Tricky little rascal
I mean me…so glad for the down votes.Nice ta know I am loved and appreciated!!!!
Kitajima has the argument for being the goat in the breast. Swept the 100/200 breast twice at an Olympics & held the WR in both the 100 & 200. Peaty though is just downright dominate unlike Kitajima (never seen Kitajima win a 100 breast by over a body length).
Anyways, not to take anything away from Koseki, what a monster swim.
That would be a hard argument. 2004 deserves an *. He’s lucky he got away with the dolphin kicks on his pulldowns.
I completely agree with you about Peaty.
How long had kitajima held it? 18 years?
If I remember correctly, Kitajima swam that time at the ’08 Olympics.
No. 2012 Japan Olympic trials
He lowered the record several times, but he first broke the record no later than 2000 at the Sydney Olympics where he got 4th just before he turned 18. I don’t believe anyone else has held it since then up to Koseki, but he may have even had it before that.