Narita Hits 4:36.03 400 IM, Honda Clocks 1:54.68 200 Fly At Kanagawa Tune-Up Meet

10TH SUMMER CHALLENGE MEET (JPN)

• Saturday, June 29th & Sunday, June 30th
• Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap
• Results

Several Japanese stars took on the 10th Summer Challenge Meet to sharpen and tune-up ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games beginning just about a month from now.

A handful of them repeated the events in which they raced yesterday, including 17-year-old Tatsuya Murasa who took on the 200m freestyle both days.

Yesterday the teen logged a winning result of 1:46.59 to establish a new lifetime best and Japanese National High School Record.

Tonight, Murasa was a half-second off that mark, putting up a still-impressive result of 1:47.09.

That got him to the wall ahead of national champion Katushiro Matsumoto who settled for silver in 1:48.41. Konosuke Yanagimoto also landed on the podium, registering 1:48.72 for bronze.

33-year-old Satomi Suzuki won the women’s 200m breast on day one in an outing of 2:25.30 and she repeated the event tonight.

The Olympic qualifier touched in 2:24.56 to speed up by just under a second, decisively taking the race as the only swimmer to delve under the 2:30 barrier. She took this event at the Japanese Olympic Trials in a time of 2:23.09.

Teen Mio Narita punched a head-turning time of 4:36.03 en route to topping the women’s 400m IM podium.

That got the edge over runner-up Waka Kobori who nabbed 4:38.56 while Ageha Tanigawa bagged bronze in 4:45.04.

Just 17 years of age, Narita represents Japan’s 3rd-swiftest women’s 400m IM performer in history. She clocked a time of 4:35.40 at Japan’s Olympic Trials so tonight’s outing fell just over half a second shy of the teen’s quickest of all time with Paris on the horizon.

Finally, in the men’s 200m fly, Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda improved upon his 1:55.72 from yesterday.

Tonight the 22-year-old scored a time of 1:54.68 to get the job done, splitting as follows: 25.29/28.66 (53.95)/29.71/31.02 (1:00.73).

After the race, Honda told Asian media, “I swam well up to 150 (meters). If I can get the last 50 meters in order, I think I’ll be able to compete in the real thing.

I’d like to run a time in the 1 minute 51 second range in the (Olympic) final and win the gold medal.” (Nikkan Sports)

Additional Notes

• Genki Terakado sneaked into the wall ahead of Matsumoto in the men’s 100m fly, with the former touching in 51.66 to the latter’s 51.70.
• The men’s 200m breast saw Yu Hanaguruma notch 2:09.76 as the gold medalist.