TATSUMI, Japan, February 16. RISING breaststroke star Yasuhiro Koseki closed out a particularly strong outing at the two-day Japanese Short Course Nationals today with an Asian record and a Japanese record as he finished the weekend with all three breaststroke marks from his native country.
Koseki continued is strong meet here in Tatsumi with another record as he popped a 26.32 in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke. That broke the previous record of 26.47 previously held by Koichiro Okazaki set during the Tokyo World Cup.
After having taken down the 100 breast record with a 56.34 yesterday, Koseki made it a clean sweep to close out the two-day meet as he raced to a 2:02.03 in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke. That swim blasted Kosuke Kitajima’s Asian and Japanese record of 2:02.95 set at the 2011 Japanese Championships in Tokyo.
Kanako Watanabe also picked up a Japanese record as she raced her way to a 2:06.39 in the women’s 200-meter IM. That swim smashed the previous mark of 2:07.84 set by Asami Kitagawa set at the 2009 Japan Open, giving Watanabe two of the three IM short course national records after clocking a 59.28 in the 100 IM yesterday.
Watanabe then nearly made it two records with a 2:16.97 in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke. That just missed Rie Kaneto’s Asian record of 2:16.73 from the 2009 Berlin World Cup.
Chihiro Igarashi nearly became the first Japanese woman to eclipse the 4:00 mark in the women’s 400-meter free with a winning time of 4:00.50. She won the race by more than seven seconds with Asami Chida posting a distant second in 4:07.92. This had been one of the older records in the Japanese swimming short course books as Sachiko Yamada had clocked a 4:01.04 in 2007 at a meet in Nishinomiya.
Other winners:
Sayaka Akase: Women’s 100 back (57.36)
Naito Ehara: Men’s 400 free (3:43.08)
Kosuke Hagino: Men’s 100 fly (50.26)
Rino Hosoda: Women’s 100 fly (57.71)
Masaki Kaneko: Men’s 100 back (50.28)
Asuka Kobayashi: Women’s 50 breast (30.61)
Katsumi Nakamura: Men’s 100 free (46.99)
Daiya Seto: Men’s 200 IM (1:53.32)
Miki Uchida: Women’s 100 free (53.09)