2018 Japan Open Day 4: Ikee’s 5th Gold, Watanabe Busts Breaststroke

2018 JAPAN OPEN

• Thursday, May 24th – Sunday, May 27th
• Tatsumi International Swimming Centre, Tokyo, Japan
• LCM
• Final selection meet for Asian Games, Pan Pacific Championships & Jr. Pan Pacific Championships
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Day 3 Recap
• Results

17-year-old Olympian Rikako Ikee wrapped up her 4th individual win at th 2018 Japan Open with a convincing victory in the women’s 50m free. Already racking up golds across her specialty events of the 50m fly, 100m/200m free, Ikee crushed a mark of 24.47 to top the women’s splash n’ dash podium in the only sub-25 second outing of the field. Her time last night was just .26 away from her own 24.21 national record, a time which set a new World Junior Record and remains as the 4th fastest effort in the world this season.

Ikee then nailed a terrific swim in the 100m fly, wining in 56.93 to claim her 5th win of this Japan Open. Splitting 26.75/30.18, Ikee came within striking distance of her own national mark of 56.38, which is 2nd only to Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden in the worldwide rankings.

Another Olympian notching multiple wins is Kosuke Hagino, who topped the men’s 200m backstroke field last night after having won the 200m IM. Hagino cleared the field in a solid 1:57.18, a time that checks-in among his own personal 10 best performances.

The fastest the 23-year-old 400m IM Olympic champion has been in this 2back event is the 1:55.43 produced at the 2013 World Championships, where he finished 5th in the event. Remarkably, Hagino’s effort in this 200m back now ranks him 15th in the world, ahead of backstroke specialists such as Grigory Tarasevich of Russia and Luke Greenbank of Great Britain.

World record holder Ippei Watanabe was the man to beat in the 200m breaststroke race, clocking 2:08.30 to get the job done by over a second. Runner-up in the race was Hayato Watanabe, who also earned a sub-2:10 mark in his silver medal time of 2:09.75. With this outing last night, Ippei now checks-in as the 4th fastest swimmer in the world, just .01 ahead of Pan Pacific Championships would-be rival Matthew Wilson of Australia.

Of note, Daiya Seto finished 8th in the race with a respectable 2:11.83. For the Olympic bronze medalist, his partipcation in this race further exemplifies the emphasis he has been putting on the breaststroke discipline as of late.

Additional Winners:

• Shinri Shioura took the men’s 50m free ni a time of 22.15, just .02 ahead of Kosuke Matsui and his runner-up effort of 22.17. Syunichi Nakao was also right up there, rounding out the top 3 in 22.19.
• China’s 15-year-old Xuwei Peng proved too tought in the women’s 200m backstroke, winning in a stellar mark of 2:08.30. Sakoya Akase was the fastest Japanese swimmer, touching behind Peng in 2:09.38.
• A sub-52 second 100m fly was put down by Yuki Kobori to claim the victory. He notched 51.90 for the win.