Matsumoto Moves Up To #3 In The World With 1:45.8 200 Free

2020 KOSUKE KITAJIMA CUP

• Friday, January 24th – Sunday, January 26th
• Tatsumi International Swimming Centre, Tokyo, Japan
• 50m (LCM)
• Meet Information
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results

On top of now-30-year-old Ryosuke Irie‘s head-turning performance in the 100m back, where the birthday boy clocked a world-leading time of 52.59, additional swims brought down the house on day 1 of the 2020 Kosuke Kitajima Cup.

World Championships silver medalist Katsuhiro (Katsuo) Matsumoto blew up the men’s 200m freestyle, busting out a winning effort of 1:45.82. Splitting 51.27/54.55, Matsumoto won the race by almost 2 seconds, beating out runner-up Naito Ehara who touched in 1:47.64.

Matsumoto’s big-time 1:45.82 tonight overtook the previous meet record mark of 1:46.72 and now ranks as 3rd in the world this season (since September 1, 2019). His outing also falls just over half a second outside his own Japanese national record time of 1:45.22, the mark that earned him World Championships silver in Gwangju last year.

Top 5 Men’s 200 Freestyle Performers Since September 2019

1. Danas Rapsys (LTU) 1:45.50, 11/09/19
2. Sun Yang (CHN) 1:45.55, 01/18/20
3. Katushiro Matsumoto (JPN) 1:45.82, 01/24/20
4. Townley Haas (USA) 1:45.92, 12/06/19
5. Ji Xinjie (CHN) 1:46.54, 12/06/19

Also in the race was former national record holder Kosuke Hagino, who settled for 10th place in 1:52.19, saying he had ‘a terrible race.’ He still has the IM events and backstroke yet to contest here in Tokyo.

On the women’s side, Ohashi impressed in the 200m fly, winning the final with ease in a time of 2:08.78. That held off Suzuka Hasegawa who touched in 2:09.24 for silver in the only other sub-2:10 time of the field.

As for Ohashi, her personal best rests at the 2:07.57 put up at the 2019 Japan Swim.

Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 200m fly, Masato Sakai, put up a winning effort of 1:55.48 this evening. That out-touched Nao Horomura by less than half a second, with Horomura posting 1:55.84.

Sakai just clocked a time of 1:56.23 at the FINA Champions Series in Beijing, so tonight’s time now rockets him up from 8th in the world to now 5th in times posted since September 1, 2019.

As for Horomura, the man registered an outing of 1:55.43 at the Japanese Student Championships in September to remain 4th in the world at this moment.

Additional Winners:

• Waka Kobori, two-time gold medalist at the 2019 World University Games, topped the women’s 800m free in a time of 8:39.16, winning by over 7 seconds.
• The women’s 200m free saw Chihiro Igarashi get it done for gold in 1:58.94, while Tomomi Aoki was also under 2:00 in 1:59.26.
• Another meet record went down, courtesy of Rio Shirai in the women’s 100m back. Her time of 1:00.33 tonight overtook the previous meet standard of 1:00.50.
• Reona Aoki took the women’s 100m breast in 1:06.98.