2020 JAPAN SWIM
- Thursday, December 3rd – Sunday, December 6th
- Prelims: Staggered start; Finals: Estimated 5 pm local (3 am EST)
- Tokyo Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Entries (in Japanese)
- Live Stream
- SwimSwam Preview #1
- SwimSwam Preview #2
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
Day 1 of the 2020 Japan Swim saw some solid swims, but nothing outrageously spectacular, reflecting the fact that this is a non-qualification event for the nation’s best swimmers.
Many contestants, such as Kosuke Hagino, Shoma Sato and Yui Ohashi, are coming off of International Swimming League season 2, with their team of the Tokyo Frog Kings making it to the final 8 before being eliminated. As such, we’re seeing non-tapered swimming from the aquatic athletes, producing results as follows for day 2.
The men’s 200m free saw national record holder Katsuo Matsumoto produce a time of 1:46.10 to take the national title, hitting the only sub-1:47 outing of the field. Splitting 50.92/55.18, the World Championships silver medalist in the event now ties Russia’s Martin Malyutin as the 2nd fastest performer this season.
Matsumoto has now won the national title in this event 3 times in a row.
2020-2021 LCM Men 200 Free
Dean
1:44.22
| 2 | Duncan Scott | GBR | 1:44.26 | 07/27 |
| 3 | Hwang Sunwoo | KOR | 1:44.62 | 07/25 |
| 4 | Katsuo Matsumoto | JPN | 1:44.65 | 04/05 |
| 5 | Fernando Scheffer | BRA | 1:44.66 | 07/27 |
Hagino was also in the men’s final, swimming his first 200m free in quite a while. The former national record holder produced a time of 1:49.53 to place 7th.
Also of note, teenager Konosuke Yanagimoto finished 5th in the 200m free final, logging a time of 1:49.13. He was 16 years of age in September when he posted the fastest time of his career of 1:47.85.
Natsumi Sakai topped the women’s 100m back with a time of 59.54 as the only sub-minute swimmer, while 30-year-old Olympic veteran Ryosuke Irie snagged the men’s race in 53.04. Irie’s outing now ranks him as the 2nd faest performer this LCM season.
Irie’s title tonight marks his 7th consecutive in the 100m back event. Hagino was in this race, too, placing 3rd in a time of 54.43. He owns a lifetime best of 52.78 from 2014.
2020-2021 LCM Men 100 Back
Rylov
51.98
| 2 | Kliment Kolesnikov | RUS | 52.00 | 07/27 |
| 3 | Ryan Murphy | USA | 52.19 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Thomas Ceccon | ITA | 52.30 | 07/27 |
| 5 | Xu Jiayu | CHN | 52.35 | 03/07 |
The women’s 400m IM saw Sakiko Shimizu reap the quickest time, getting to the wall first in a time of 4:36.77. That result was the only one under 4:41 in an event which saw Yui Ohashi no-show in the morning heats.
Shimizu owns a lifetime best of 4:34.66 from the 2016 Olympic Games prelims, which marked a then-new national record that has since been taken over by Ohashi. Shimizu wound up placing 8th in 4:38.06 in Rio.
Additional Winners:
- Rio Shirai was the women’s 200m free winner, posting the fastest time of the night in 1:58.12.
- Yukimi Moriyama was the women’s 800m free victor with a time of 8:40.87.