Japan’s Yui Ohashi, the fastest swimmer in the world for 2018, won her first Asian Games gold medal taking out the 400 IM on night three in Jakarta. Ohashi won the gold with a 4:34.58, a little slower than her 4:33.77 from Pan Pacs earlier in the month, but good enough to win by nearly three full seconds. Ohashi won the gold ahead of South Korea’s Kim Seoyeong (4:37.43), who won the silver medal.
Ohashi was about a second and a half off of Ye Shiwen’s Games Record of 4:32.97 from 2014.
Both Ohashi and Kim would have finaled in the Virtual World Championships after all the major international meets this summer. Japan’s Sakiko Shimizu won the bronze medal here in Jakarta with her 4:39.10, much slower than her 4:36.27 from Pan Pacs. She too would have gotten in the final at the Virtual Worlds with that Pan Pac time.
Those three were well ahead of the rest of the field as China’s Zhou Min (4:42.75) and Vietnam’s Vien Nguyen (4:42.81) finished off the podium in fourth and fifth.
Ohashi became the fourth Japanese swimmer to win the 400 IM at the Asian Games joining the likes of Mio Hirata (1978), Hideka Koshimizu (1982) and Yasuko Tajima (1998) as winners in the event for Japan.
- Yui Ohashi, JPN, 4:34.58
- Kim Seoyeong, KOR, 4:37.43
- Sakiko Shimizu, JPN, 4:39.10
- Zhou Min, CHN, 4:42.75
- Vien Nguyen, VIE, 4:42.81
- Yang Chang, CHN, 4:47.24
- Hoi Kiu Lam, HKG, 4:55.42
- Azzahra Permatahani, INA, 4:58.89
Virtual World Championships:
- Yui Ohashi, JPN, 4:33.77, Pan Pacs
- Fantine Lesaffre, FRA, 4:34.17, Europeans
- Aimee Willmott, GBR, 4:34.90, Europeans
- Ilaria Cusinato, ITA, 4:35.05, Europeans
- Hannah Miley, GBR, 4:35.16, Europeans
- Melanie Margalis, USA, 4:35.60, Pan Pacs
- Sakiko Shimizu, JPN, 4:36.27, Pan Pacs
- Kim Seoyeong, KOR, 4:37.43, Asian Games
