Photo Courtesy: Tobiuo Japan
INCHEON, South Korea, September 25. Some historic swims occurred at the Asian Games here in Incheon as China’s Ning Zetao became the first 47-second man in Asian history, while Ryosuke Irie turned in a world-leader in the 200 back.
Scheduled Events
- Men’s 50 fly
- Women’s 50 breast
- Men’s 100 free
- Women’s 800 free
- Men’s 200 back
- Women’s 400 medley relay
Medal Standings
[table “” not found /]Men’s 50 fly
China’s Shi Yeng nearly matched the Asian record with a Games-record time of 23.46 this evening in the sprint fly. That swim smashed Zhou Jiawei’s meet mark of 23.66 from the 2010 edition, while almost tying the Asian record of 23.43 shared by Zhou and Joseph Schooling. Shi’s time moved him to 16th in the world rankings this year.
Schooling, meanwhile, earned his third medal of the meet and first silver as he now has a full house of medals with a gold, silver and a bronze after taking second tonight in 23.70. South Korea’s Jungdoo Yang picked up bronze with a 23.79.
Japan’s Hirofumi Ikebata (23.81), China’s Zhang Qibin (23.83), Japan’s Takuro Fujii (24.03), Hong Kong’s Geoff Cheah (24.25) and South Korea’s Seokhwan Yun (24.32) also did battle in the finale.
Women’s 50 breast
Photo Courtesy: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Japan’s Satomi Suzuki won her first gold medal ever at the Asian Games after previously taking silver in the 100 and bronze in the 50 breast back in 2010 as Suzuki put up a time of 31.34 in the sprint breaststroke tonight. She’s been much faster this year with a 31.04 from the Japan Open, but didn’t need that speed tonight.
China’s Suo Ran (31.52) and He Yuzhe (31.62) took silver and bronze, while Japan’s Kanako Watanabe placed fourth in 31.64.
Hong Kong’s Yvette Kong (32.33), South Korea’s Jiwon Yang (32.35), Singapore’s Ruen Roanne Ho (32.70) and Macau’s On Kei Lei (32.71) also competed for the title.
Men’s 100 free
Photo Courtesy: Bestswimming
China’s Ning Zetao is the first legitimate men’s freestyle world title threat from his country, especially after he just threw down the first sub-48 second swim by any Asian swimmer. After turning at 23.02, Ning came blazing home in 24.68 to win in 47.70. That swim smashed his Asian record of 48.27 from the 2013 Chinese Nationals Games, and Tae Hwan Park’s Games record of 48.70 from 2010. That’s Ning’s third gold medal of the meet after winning the 50 free as well as the 400 free relay.
Ning’s time vaulted him to third in the world this year behind James Magnussen (47.59) and Cameron McEvoy (47.65), and ahead of Florent Manaudou (47.98) as the only swimmers under 48 seconds this year. It also is faster than the 47.71 used by Magnussen to win the 2013 world title.
Park, meanwhile, moved up to silver for the first time this meet with a second-place 48.75, while Japan’s Shinri Shioura raced to third in 48.85.
Japan’s Rammaru Harada (49.47), China’s Yu Hexin (49.50), Vietnam’s Quy Phuoc Hoang (50.15), Hong Kong’s Geoff Cheah (50.41) and Singapore’s Clement Lim (50.61) closed out the finale.
Top Splits
[table “” not found /]Women’s 800 free
China went 1-2 in the distance freestyle finale as Bi Yirong won the title by more than six seconds with an 8:27.54. Her teammate Xu Danlu turned in a time of 8:33.89 for second overall, while Japan’s Asami Chida placed third in 8:34.66.
South Korea’s Hyeonju Jo (8:42.31), Thailand’s Sarisa Suwannachet (8:43.00), Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi (8:44.47), Singapore’s Lynette Lim (8:52.45) and Malaysia’s Cai Lin Khoo (8:53.51) made up the rest of the top eight in the timed final event.
Top Splits
[table “” not found /]Men’s 200 back
Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
Japan’s Ryosuke Irie crushed his Games record with a blistering time of 1:53.26, which also cut half-a-second off his world-leading 1:53.91 from the Japanese Nationals this year. His performance tonight demolished his 1:55.45 meet record from his victory in 2010, while it also puts him nearly a second ahead of the world with Kosuke Hagino holding second in the world with a 1:54.23 from Japanese Nationals as well.
Irie’s time would have won Olympic gold in 2012, and is faster than the Olympic record of 1:53.41 set by Tyler Clary in 2012. That’s a pretty seriously fast time heading down the back half towards the 2016 Rio Games.
China’s Xu Jiayu finished second tonight in 1:55.05 to clear his fourth-ranked season best of 1:55.11 from Chinese Nationals, while Hagino earned his seventh medal of the meet with a bronze-winning 1:56.36. Hagino finished the night with four golds, a silver and two bronzes in an amazing haul.
South Korea’s Taejeong Im (1:58.82), Taipei’s Shih Chieh Lin (2:03.02), Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Tarabrin (2:04.54), Indonesia’s Ricky Anggawidjaja (2:06.41) and Kazakhstan’s Stanislav Ossinskiy (2:06.67) rounded out the finale.
Top Splits
[table “” not found /]Women’s 400 medley relay
Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
With the huge favorite Chinese team sitting on the sidelines watching after a disqualification this morning, Japan’s Shiho Sakai, Kanako Watanabe, Natsumi Hoshi and Miki Uchida walked away with the victory in 4:00.94. The morning disqualification, that caused extended argument throughout the morning with no change, wound up causing Shen Duo a chance at her fifth gold medal of the meet.
South Korea’s Dalin Lee, Jiwon Yang, Sehyeon An and Miso Ko finished a distant second tonight in 4:04.82 with Hong Kong’s Stephanie Au, Yvette Kong, Hang Yu Sze and Siobhan Haughey taking advantage of the lack of the Chinese to earn bronze in 4:07.15.
Singapore (4:11.17), Thailand (4:16.66), Taipei (4:19.92), Macau (4:26.18) and Mongolia (5:07.23) also vied for the continental title tonight.
Japan’s Splits: 4:00.94
[table “” not found /]Twitter Coverage
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Great swims! Will be at the meet tonight as swimming closes here at the Asian Games. Looking forward to it!