17-year old Kanako Watanabe has broken her 2nd Japanese National Record of the 2014 Japanese National Short Course Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
As another step in her transition from breaststroker to IM’er, Watanabe swam a 2:06.39 in the 200 IM on the final day of the meet. That broke the old 2:07.84, done in 2009 by Asami Kitagawa, as the Japanese Record in the race, and matches up with the 100 IM record she did on Saturday.
That was one of two National Records that Watanabe broke on the day, though the other was a National Junior Record. She walked away with a win in the 200 breaststroke as well (for three national titles in total at the meet) with a 2:16.97, the fastest ever done by a Japanese 17-year old. Another teenager, Mio Motegi, who won the 100 earlier in the meet, was 2nd in 2:17.25, and the country’s best long course breaststroker Rie Kaneto was 3rd in 2:18.09.
Another swimmer to break two National Records on Sunday was Yasuhiro Koseki, though his were both of the senior variety.
First came a 26.32 in the 50m breaststroke, beating Yuuki Okajima (26.87) and Yuuki Hayashi (26.91). That broke both Vlad Polyakov’s old Asian Record (he was the only Kazakh continental record holder) as well as Okijama’s old National Record.
Koseki then tagged on a 2:02.03 to run away with the men’s 200 breaststroke, breaking the legendary Kosuke Kitajima’s National/Asian Record of 2:02.95.
Add to that his 100 breaststroke record from Saturday, and the man who came into the weekend with no National Records, now holds all three breaststroke marks in short course.
One more record went down on Sunday, though it was of the singular variety. In the women’s 400 freestyle, Chihiro Igarashi took half-a-second off of Sachiko Yamada’s 2007 National Record, and also .05 seconds off of Liu Jing’s Asian Record, with a 4:00.50 in the women’s 400 free. She was out in under two minutes in that swim, and built a huge lead early to run away from the field.
Kosuke Hagino, who was a part of the record-breaking party on Saturday, didn’t pick up any more marks on Sunday. He did, however, add a 3rd national crown with a 50.26 in the 100 fly, again showing off his versatility (he’s a great backstroker, freestyler, and IM’er as well). That swim was half-a-second away from the National Record, and gave him the win over 34-year old veteran Kouhei Kawamoto (50.56) and Takeshi Matsuda (51.32), both of whom are at least a decade Hagino’s senior.
With no Shiho Sakai at this meet, and with Aya Terakawa retired, the women’s sprint backstrokes in Japan are in for an overhaul. That is expected to be led by 19-year old Sayaka Akase, who won the women’s 100m distance in 57.36.
Also swimming well on the final day again were Japan’s sprinters. In the men’s race, Katsumi Nakamura was a 46.99 to place ahead of the more engrained Shinri Shioura (47.17) and Takuro Fujii (48.09). With Fujii likely nearing the end of his career, Nakamura’s emergence might be coming just in time (along with the young Hagino and Yamaguchi the breaststroker) to keep Japan as a contender in the medley relays internationally.
And finally, Miki Uchida was a 53.09, which also just missed the National Record in the women’s 100m free, after breaking the 50 on Saturday.
Full meet results available here (in English).
All results in a single PDF document here (in English).
Has there ever been another breaststroker with Koseki’s range? Vandenburgh and Sprenger were not 200 swimmers, and Gyurta and Hansen never had that kind of raw speed. It’ll be interesting to see what Koseki can do long course.
Rickard was quite good over the three, sprenger did hold the 200m world record at one stage but bombed out in the final, so was a handy 200 swimmer.
Sprenger was mostly 200, his 200 was far better than his 100.
If there were an 800 Medley relay, I think the Japanese men would be solid contenders. All of their 200’s are absurdly good, especially in the 200 breast.
Ryosuke Irie on the back, Akihiro Yamaguchi/Yasuhiro Koseki breast, Daiya seto fly, and Kosuke Hagino closing with a 200 free would be downright dirty. They’ve been very impressive the last year or two, and, like Bobo says, most probably have lots of room to improve as they get older.
Seto in 200 fly?
Try Takeshi Matsuda instead, the current olympics bronze medalist and third fastest 200 flyer ever in 1:53.21
ah, good call. I was only thinking Seto because he recently beat Le Clos and went 1:54. I had forgotten Matsuda. So my hypothetical 800 medley relay just got faster.
Wow! I’m more and more impressed by the constant progression of the Japanese swimming level for a few years.
They have plenty of 17/20-year-old very talented swimmers.
But now it’s time for them to show the results of that progression in the big world meets.
They have everything to be the second or the third swimming nation behind USA.
They already won second biggest medals behind the USA in 2012 London.