2019 KONAMI OPEN
- Saturday, February 16th & Sunday, February 17th
- International Swimming Centre, Chiba Prefecture
- Prelims at 9am local (7pm previous night EST)/Finals at 6pm local (4am EST)
- LCM
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Results
The 2019 Konami Open kicked off tonight, but without one of Japan’s main aquatic powerhouses, Rikako Ikee. As the 18-year-old recently announced her shocking leukemia diagnosis just months after earning the first-ever female MVP at an Asian Games, Ikee is sidelined to address her health while her teammates compete this weekend in her honor.
A giant poster is present in the International Swimming Centre where fans, athletes, coaches, officials and anyone with a message of hope and positivity can write it down for Ikee to eventually see.
To get things started in the pool, 24-year-old Daiya Seto continued his on-fire performances with a stellar 4:10.03 400m IM victory. That’s less than a second off of the eye-popping 4:09.25 Seto produced late last month at the Hamamatsu Long Course Championships and also sets a new Konami Open Record.
At that same meet, the newly-minted short course 200m fly World Record holder also fired off a 200m IM stunner of 1:56.98, so we’ll see what the ANA athlete has in the bank for that event tomorrow here in Chiba Prefecture. Seto’s 400m IM time at this same Konami Open last year was a 4:15.75, so he’s already well ahead of schedule.
Of note, 400m IM Olympic champion Kosuke Hagino registered a prelims effort of 4:23.66 for the 7th seed, but opted out of tonight’s final.
Naito Ehara has been rehabilitating his shoulder while continuing to race, but that didn’t deter the 25-year-old Asian Games silver medalist from reaping gold twice tonight. First in the 1500m, Ehara clocked a time of 15:12.93 to top the podium and also enter the world rankings.
His effort checks-in as the 6th fastest time in the world this season and makes Ehara the 2nd fastest Asian behind 5th ranked Atsuya Yoshida. Yoshida registered a mark of 15:12.04 back in September.
2018-2019 LCM MEN 1500 FREE
WELLBROCK
14.36.54
| 2 | Myhailo ROMANCHUK | UKR | 14.37.63 | 07/28 |
| 3 | Gregorio PALTRINIERI | ITA | 14.38.34 | 04/06 |
| 4 | David AUBRY | FRA | 14.44.72 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Henrik CHRISTIANSEN | NOR | 14.45.35 | 07/28 |
| 6 | Franko GRGIC | CRO | 14.46.09 | 08/25 |
Ehara’s next victim was the 200m free, where he topped the field in a mark of 1:48.28 to sit just outside the top 10 performances in the world this season.
The women’s 400m IM Japanese queen also did some damage in her specialty event, taking the win in 4:37.36. She’s been as fast as 4:32.00 this season to rank #1 in the world, but Ohashi’s mark tonight still would have earned silver at the 2018 Asian Games behind her own winning 4:34.58.
Ai Soma broke the meet record in the women’s 100m fly, a field void the aforementioned Ikee who would ordinarily dominate the domestic field. Soma put down a nice 58.79 to take the gold and fall just short of her season-best of 58.25 that ranks her 6th in the world.
2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 100 FLY
MacNeil
55.83
| 2 | Sarah SJOSTROM | SWE | 56.2 | 07/22 |
| 3 | Emma McKEON | AUS | 56.61 | 04/22 |
| 4 | Marie WATTEL | FRA | 57.00 | 07/21 |
| 5 | Brianna THROSSELL | AUS | 57.02 | 07/21 |
| 6 | Elena DI LIDDO | ITA | 57.04 | 07/21 |
Additional winners tonight include Katsumi Nakamura taking the 50m free in 22.05 ahead of domestic rival Shinri Shioura‘s 22.13. Natsumi Sakai was victorious in the women’s 100m back, clocking a new meet record of 1:0035, while Tomomi Aoki beat the women’s 50m breast field in the only sub-31 second time of the field in 30.99.
Ippei Miyamoto topped the men’s 200m breast field by just .03, winning in 2:11.60, while Rio Shirai led the women’s 200m free field in 1:58.52. Chihiro Igarashi also notched a 200m free time under the 1:59 barrier in 1:58.55.