15-year-old Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee made headlines once again while competing at the World Cup in Tokyo, this time for downing the World Junior Record mark in the women’s 50m butterfly.
After already registering a new Japanese National Record yesterday in the 100m distance of the discipline Ikee was at it again today, lowering the previous WJR 50m butterfly mark of 26.26 set by Razaliya Nasretdinova (Russia) at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing. Ikee scored a time of 26.17, knocking .09 off of the time to own the new mark.
Of note, silver medalist in the 50m fly in Tokyo tonight, Miki Uchida, also swam under Nasretdinova’s mark, registering a 26.23. Ikee and Uchida now own the 4th and 5th-fastest times in the world for 2015.
2015-2016 LCM Women 50 FLY
SJOSTROM
24.99
| 2 | Francesca HALSALL | gBR | 25.35 | 05/16 |
| 3 | Jeanette OTTESEN | DEN | 25.44 | 05/17 |
| 4 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 25.62 | 04/08 |
| 5 | Theresa ALSHAMMAR | SWE | 25.78 | 07/09 |
The 50m fly was Ikee’s and Uchida’s 2nd event on the night, whereby they also finished 1-2 in the women’s 100m freestyle. In that race, Ikee was just .14 shy of the Japanese National Record and merely three tenths of a second off of that sprint event’s World Junior Record mark.
Did I mention that Ikee is just 15 years old?
Amazing swim! But it doesn’t really matter that she’s 15. Girls mature earlier than guys and a lot of them are fast that age.