By Hideki Mochizuki
TOKYO, April 23. THE JAPANESE Swimming Federation announced today the team roster for World
Championships. Twenty men and 19 women were selected
for the World Champsionships.
After the turmoil surrounding the federation's decision last year not to select Suzu Chiba–the nation's top-ranked swimmer in the global rankings–the federation acknowledged the necessity to create clearer standards for selecting swimmers for the national team. As a result, two standards were set for
swimmers for the World Championships.
"Standard I" equals eighth place in the previous year's world rankings. "Standard II" was set at 16th place.
Those who met Standard I requirements and won at this year's Trials were selected automatically. Next were those who met Standard II requirements and won an event. Third to be selected were those who met Standard II and finished second. In the event that no one achieved Standard I or II times, the winner of each
event was picked up for the team. In all, 14 swimmers achieved Standard II requirements, with an additional six clearing Standard I.
The Japanese federation set as its goal for the World Championships to better its performance in Sydney, where Japanese swimmers won two silver and two bronze medals.
Below is a list of the swimmers comprising the Japanese National Team that will represent Japan in the World Championships. Swimmers without the "@" mark will also represent Japan at the East Asian Games.
MEN
Freestyle
1. Tomohiro Yamanoi (age: 23)
2. Shunsuke Ito (25)
3. Yoshihiro Okumura (17)
4. Daisuke Hosokawa (19)
5. Hideaki Hara (26)
6. Shunichi Fujita (18)
7. Masato Hirano (25) @
Backstroke
8. Tomomi Morita (16) @
9. Atsushi Nishikori (22)
10. Haruki Takeuchi (19) @
11. Kozan Hashimoto (20)
Breaststroke
12. Kosuke Kitajima (18)
13. Yoshiaki Okita (22)
14. Ryosuke Imai (23)
Butterfly
15. Takashi Yamamoto (22)
16. Hisayoshi Tanaka (22)
17. Ryo Takayasu (19)@
Individual Medley
18. Susumu Tabuchi (20)
19. Jiro Miki (17)
20. Takahiro Mori (21)
WOMEN
Freestyle
1. Sumika Minamoto (21)
2. Tomoko Nagai (19)
3. Maki Mita (18)
4. Eri Yamanoi (22)
5. Sachiko Yamada (18)
6. Yumi Kida (15)@
Backstroke
7. Mai Nakamura (21)
8. Hanae Ito (16)
9. Reiko Nakamura (18)
10. Aya Terakawa (16)
Breaststroke
11. Sanae Nawata (15)@
12. Yuko Sakaguchi (22)
13. Junko Isoda (20)
Butterfly
14. Junko Ohnishi (26)
15. Yuko Nakanishi (20)
16. Saori Haruguchi (14)@
17. Asako Kitada (17)
IM
18. Ayane Sato (18)
19. Tomoko Hagiwara (21)
OFFICIALS/TEAM SUPPORT
Team Manager: Tsuyoshi Aoki
General Affairs: Yoshinobu Shidara, Keisuke Okuno
Doctor: Koji Kaneoka
Head Coach: Koji Ueno
Coach: Yoji Suzuki
Coach: Norimasa Hirai
Coach: Eiko Tamura
Coach: Hiroaki Matsuda
Coach: Yoshiaki Takemura
Coach: Hiroshi Moriya
Coach: Shin Ohta
Chaperon: Chikako Kimura
Trainer: Kunihiko Ozawa, Kounosuke Kikuchi
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