By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2023 TOKYO METRO NEW YEAR’S MEET
- Saturday, January 7th & Sunday, January 8th
- Tatsumi International Swimming Center
- SCM (25m)
- Entries (in Japanese)
The 2023 Tokyo Metro New Year’s Meet is set to take place this weekend at the Tatsumi International Swimming Center. The domestic short course meet is the annual precursor to the trio of ‘K’ meets set to unroll in Japan, with the Kosuke Kitajima Cup slated for later this month while the Konami Open and Kirara Cup kickoff in February.
Although World Record holder Tomoru Honda and six-peat Short Course World Championships gold medalist Daiya Seto are opting out of the New Year’s Meet, there are still several notable swimmers ready to take to the Tokyo pool.
Among them is 22-year-old leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee.
National record holder Ikee sat out of last year’s Short Course National Championships, thus forgoing qualification for Melbourne. The two-time Olympian said she wanted to focus on the home-based 2023 World Championships (50m) and ultimately her goal of making the Japanese squad for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
With that in mind, Ikee’s presence at this New Year’s meet will mark her first competitive meet since last spring. At April’s Japanese Long Course Championships, the sprint ace put up her fastest 100m freestyle of her post-leukemia career, logging a time of 53.83.
Joining Ikee this weekend will be two-time Olympic gold medalist Yui Ohashi. 27-year-old Ohashi is coming off the Short Course World Championships where she had a relatively quiet competition. Ohashi placed 11th in the 100m IM (59.45), 13th in the 200m IM (2:08.12) and was not among the women’s 400m IM field.
On the men’s front, Olympian Konosuke Yanagimoto is among the entrants, along with Juran Mizohata and Shinnosuke Ishikawa.
SwimSwam: Rikako Ikee Set To Make 2023 Racing Debut At Tokyo New Year’s Meet
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