39 swimmers will compete for Japan at the Asian Swimming Championships next month in Tokyo, but two of the countries biggest-name athletes will be absent: Kosuke Hagino and Rie Kaneto.
Hagino had surgery last month to remove an extra bone in his elbow, and the 400 IM gold medalist will not compete again until 2017, as his coach, Norimasa Hirai, revealed last month. It is unknown why Kaneto, who won gold in the women’s 200 breast in Rio, has passed on the continental meet. Also absent is Kanako Watanabe, who won three medals at the World Championships last year, including a gold in the 200 breast.
But there will still be plenty of big names competing: men’s 400 IM bronze medalist Daiya Seto will be in attendance, as will 21-year-old Masato Sakai, who finished just four one-hundredths behind Michael Phelps on his way to silver in the men’s 200 fly. Breaststrokers Yasuhiro Koseki and Ippei Watanabe, both Rio finalists, will compete, as will 2009 100 back World Champion Junya Koga and, on the women’s side, two-time London medalist Satomi Suzuki.
Full rosters:
Men: Tsubasa Amai, Takeharu Fujimori, Junya Hasegawa, Ayatsugu Hirai, Masaki Kaneko, Takeshi Kawamoto, Masayuki Kishida, Koga, Koseki, Katsuhiro Matsumoto, Katsumi Nakamura, Syunichi Nakao, Kouichirou Okazaki, Sakai, Seto, Keita Sunama, Shogo Takeda, Ippei Watanabe and Fuyu Yoshida.
Women: Sayaka Akase, Reona Aoki, Tomomi Aoki, Asami Chita, Mayuko Gotou, Chihiro Igarashi, Rikako Ikee, Runa Imai, Sachi Mochida, Emi Moronuki, Miyu Nakano, Rika Nara, Yui Ohhashi, Sayuki Ouchi, Misaki Sekiguchi, Sakiko Shimizu, Rio Shirai, Suzuki, Asari Wada and Yui Yamane.
View the full roster (in Japanese) here.
