The third night of the Japan Swim 2020 in the christening of the Olympic Aquatic Center in Tokyo continued with some solid swims out of Japan’s best swimmers. Kosuke Hagino took a hard fought win in the 200 IM with a 1:57.67 that put him fifth in the world for 2020 and also second in the world since the pandemic started behind China’s Wang Shun (1:56.27).
Hagino recently returned home from a long stay in Budapest at the ISL where he represented the Tokyo Frog Kings. Hagino won the silver medal in the 200 IM at the 2016 Olympics and will be a crowd favorite to potentially upgrade to a gold, along with reigning World champ Daiya Seto, who has been suspended for the remainder of 2020 by the Japanese Swimming Federation. Hagino won ahead of Keita Sunama (1:57.98) and Shuya Matsumoto (1:58.99).
Another one of Japan’s medal favorites for Tokyo, Suzuka Hasegawa won the 200 fly with a 2:08.31, just off her 2:07.8 season best from October that put her seventh in the world. Hasegawa also swam for the Tokyo Frog Kings and had the fastest time in the league in the 200 butterfly in short course meters, setting the league record in the process. Back home in Japan, Hasegawa won ahead of Kina Hayashi (2:09.37).
Miho Teramura won a tight battle in the 200 IM with a 2:11.12, just over 400 IM champ Sakiko Shimizu (2:11.25) and Rika Omoto (2:11.63). Omoto had been a 2:10 earlier this year in January before the pandemic but Teramura put herself ninth in the world for 2020 while Shimizu now sits 11th.
Omoto also took a win in the 100 freestyle earlier in the night in perhaps the most interesting race of the night. It was a tie with Natsumi Sakai (54.64) with Chihiro Igarashi (54.75) and Rio Shirai (54.82) just behind in third and fourth. Sakai, Omoto and Igarashi all flipped at 26.46 at the 50, and Omoto and Sakai ended up tied again at the 100 in a rare result where the swimmers had the exact same splits at each turn.
Tomoru Honda swam an impressive back half to win the 200 butterfly with a 1:56.36, running down Takumi Terada (1:56.43) and Yuya Sakamoto (1:56.66) in the process. Sakamoto was leading at the 100 and 150 at 54.90 and 1:25.00 with Terada in pursuit at 55.35 and 1:25.60. But it was Honda, who was a second back at 56.03 and 1:26.11, who put the pedal to the metal on the last 50 and won the race, just off his season best time from October of 1:55.7. Nao Horomura was fourth at 1:57.28.
Katsuhiro Matsumoto, the reigning Worlds silver medalist in the 200 free, won the 400 free in a tight race with a 3:49.52, which puts him 20th in the world for 2020 as he won ahead of Ryo Nakajima (3:49.87), Ikki Imoto (3:49.99) and Naito Ehara (3:50.51).
Kinuko Mochizuki also won the 800 free with an 8:32.68.