97TH JAPAN STUDENT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, October 7th – Sunday, October 10th
- Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo, Japan
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Entries (in Japanese)
- Results (in Japanese)
The final day of the 2021 Japan Student Swimming Championships wrapped up on Sunday, with Olympians Tomoru Honda and Shoma Sato among those back in the water.
Honda already won the men’s 200m fly in a time of 1:54.45 but he concluded his meet with a silver in the men’s 400m IM. Clocking a mark of 4:12.05, Honda hit the runner-up spot behind winner Kaito Tabuchi.
Tabuchi scored a new lifetime best of 4:11.80 to edge out Honda by .25, with the latter finishing in a mark of 4:12.05. In fact, both men reached a new career-quickest mark in the race, with Tabuchi’s previous PB resting at 4:13.79 from earlier this year, while Honda’s been as quick as 4:13.31 from last year.
As such, both men but under the 4:13 threshold for the first time ever and moving up the list of the top Japanese men’s 400m IM performers all-time.
All-Time Japanese Men’s LCM 400 IM Performers
- Kosuke Hagino, 4:06.05 2016
- Daiya Seto, 4:06.09 2020
- Yuya Horinata, 4:10.52 2012
- Takeharu Fujimori, 4:10.90 2017
- Yuki Ikari, 4:11.88 2021
- Kaito Tabuchi, 4:11.80 2021
- Tomoru Honda, 4:12.05 2021
For the men’s 200m breaststroke, 20-year-old Sato got it done for gold in a mark of 2:08.46. Opening in 1:01.51 and closing in 1:06.95, Seto doubled up on his 100m breast victory earlier in the meet.
The man owns a national and Asian continental record with the 2:06.40 produced last year.