Japanese backstroking ace, Ryosuke Irie, hit the pool over the weekend in Yamaguchi, Japan while competing at the 2016 Kirara Cup. Not having competed since the World Cup Tokyo back in October, Irie proved he was back in form, clocking two wins in his efforts at the Yamaguchi Kirira Expo Memorial Park pool.
First, Irie clocked a solid 1:55.44 200m backstroke race to take the win by over 4 seconds over the rest of the field. Irie’s time shaves well over a second off of his 1:56.00 outing from Tokyo, a mark which had ranked as 3rd-fastest in the world this season. With this weekend’s performance, Irie now frog-hopped American Ryan Murphy’s time of 1:55.99 to now sit as #2 in the world behind Australian double world champion Mich Larkin (1:53.17).
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 BACK
LARKIN
1.53.17
| 2 | Ryan MURPHY | USA | 1.53.62 | 08/11 |
| 3 | Evgeny RYLOV | RUS | 1.53.97 | 08/11 |
| 4 | Jacob PEBLEY | USA | 1.54.77 | 07/01 |
| 5 | Jiayu XU | CHN | 1.54.79 | 04/08 |
26-year-old Irie also clinched the 100m backstroke victory in Yamaguchi, winning in a time of 53.48 tonight. Even though the mark was enough to set a new Kirara Cup Meet Record, it fell just .21 short of his 53.27 time from Tokyo.
Via social media, Irie expressed his satisfaction as a whole on the weekend, saying, “Strong times. Looking forward to April.” April is the timeframe of the Japanese Olympic Trials, which span the 4th-10th at Tokyo’s Tatsumi International Swimming Center.
きららカップ終わりました！
タイムはこの時期にしてはまずまず！四月が楽しみだ…ここから更に強くなる！#温泉なう
— 入江陵介 (@ryosuke_irie) February 14, 2016