World C’ships 200 Freestyle Medalist Matsumoto Rips 51.66 100 Fly

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/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
• Results

One of our key races to watch at this just-concluded 2020 Japan Swim was the men’s 100m butterfly, with the field rife with the nation’s current top talent in the event.

Tokyo Frog Kings male MVP Takeshi Kawamoto was in the field, as was Japan’s 2nd fastest man ever in this event, Shinnosuke Ishikawa.

But when all was said and done, it was our sleeper pick of Katsuo Matsumoto who surged to the wall first, becoming part of the 51-second club in the process.

Entering this non-selection meet, Matsumoto’s personal best rested at the 52.49 he logged just this past September at the Chiba Prefectural Championships. That was a solid performance from the man who earned World Championships silver last year in Gwangju in the men’s 200m freestyle.

After already taking the 200m and 400m freestyle events here in Tokyo, Matsumoto (whose first name is Katsuhiro, but he prefers to be called Katsuo) roared to the wall to take the men’s 100m fly in a big-time 51.66.

Spitting 24.28/27.38, Matsumoto destroyed his aforementioned newly-minted lifetime best to beat out the likes of Kawamoto, Ishikawa, Nao Horomura and Yuki Kobori. The podium result tonight was as follows:

1. Katsuhiro (Katsuo) Matsumoto – 51.66
2. Naoki Mizunuma – 51.80
3. Takeshi Kawamoto – 51.83

With his 51.66 gold medal-worthy performance tonight, Matsumoto becomes Japan’s 5th fastest performer in this off-event. He also ranks among the top 10 Asian male performers ever.

Top Japanese Male Performers All-Time in LCM 100 Fly

1. Kohei Kawamoto – 51.00, 2009
2. Shinnosuke Ishikawa – 51.11, 2019
3. Takuro Fujii – 51.24, 2009
4. Naoki Mizunuma – 51.43, 2019
5. Katsuo Matsumoto – 51.66, 2020

For this season, Matsumoto is now situated as the world’s 3rd fastest 100m flyer.