While teammates such as Daiya Seto and Nao Horomura are preparing to compete at the 2018 FINA Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China, 18-year-old Rikako Ikee tried a USA Swimming short course yards meet on for size.
Opting out of SC Worlds, Ikee is instead among athletes attending a high-altitude camp in Flagstaff, Arizona. While in the state, Ikee raced in a Phoenix Swim Club-hosted short course yards meet in which she competed in the 200y freestyle and 50y freestyle. She was entered in the 100 free and 100 fly for day 1 of the 2018 Candy Cane Classic, but DNS’d both events.
After registering a time of 1:55.72 in the morning heats of the 200 free on day 2, Ikee fired off a winning time of 1:44.48 to take the victory in the final. She split 50.19/54.29 under heavy training, in what appears to be her first ever short course yards racing.
Earlier in the day, the 2018 Asian Games MVP earned the top seed in the 50y freestyle in a time of 24.08. Ikee scratched the final of that event.
You can see all results by searching 2018 Candy Cane Classic within Meet Mobile.
I guess Rikako is not a morning person…
I was there and participated in the candy cane classic. I had qualified for finals and after I was finished with my 200 Free I had noticed that the brand Mizuno was filming Rikako Ikee swimming both of her events, 50 Fr and 200 Fr.It was really interesting to watch how her style and swimming looked while she was racing.
I actually looked it up she swam the final of 50 free and went 22.2
Makes me feel good that I’m faster than her in 50 free in yards lol yes even though it’s her first yard meet in heavy training!
Reading the headlines scared me.