Ippei Watanabe Bests Stacked Field in 200 Breaststroke at Japanese Champs; Rikako Ikee Continues Comeback Tale
With five athletes under 2:11 during preliminaries and 12 swimmers cracking 2:12 during the morning session, the men’s 200-meter breaststroke at the Japanese Championships was undoubtedly the can’t-miss event on the fourth night of finals. Indeed, it lived up to the billing.
Behind an outing of 2:07.73, Ippei Watanabe emerged on top of the stacked field. Watanabe was out in 1:01.14 and came home in 1:06.59. Shoma Sato had the lead at the 100-meter mark and at the final turn, but couldn’t keep pace with Watanabe down the last 50 meters. Sato took second in 2:08.21. Watanabe is the former world-record holder in the event.
Also dipping into 2:08 territory were Yu Hanaguruma (2:08.72) and Yamata Fukusawa (2:08.92).
Runa Imai pulled away from her foes during the back half of the women’s 200 breaststroke, which she won in 2:22.98. Imai trailed Reona Aoki at the midway point of the race, but used her closing endurance secure a triumph of more than two seconds. Aoki finished second in 2:25.19. Kanako Watanabe placed third in 2:25.33.
The women’s 100 freestyle featured the latest chapter in the comeback story of Rikako Ikee. The Leukemia survivor registered a time of 54.17 to claim victory, her second of the competition. Earlier in the meet, Ikee won the 100 butterfly. In the freestyle, she was followed in second place by Nagisa Ikemoto (54.31).
Kaito Tabuchi comfortably beat the field in the men’s 800 freestyle, as he checked in with a time of 7:54.08. That performance handed Tabuchi a five-second triumph over runnerup Shogo Takeda, who touched the wall in 7:59.24.
The men’s 200 backstroke went to Hidekazu Takehara in 1:56.93.