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Yui Ohashi And Naoki Mizunuma Make Their Presence Known During Day 7 Heats of Japanese Trials

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By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam

2024 JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS

It’s day seven of the 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials and the last prelim session has taken place. While the meet itself is eight days long, the final day of the meet will not feature a prelims session. Five events occurred in Tokyo this morning, which were the men’s 100 butterfly, women’s 200 IM, women’s 800 freestyle, women’s 50 freestyle, and men’s 1500 freestyle.

In the men’s 100 fly, which is one of the deepest events on the docket this week, national record holder Naoki Mizunuma represented the sole individual to swim under 52 seconds. He hit the wall in a swift 51.75 morning marker, splitting 24.43/27.32 en route to winning heat five.

29-year-old Takeshi Kawamoto claimed the 2nd seed for semifinals with his 52.19 preliminary performance. He was fastest through the opening 50, splitting 24.30/27.89 on his way to winning heat four of six. Genki Terakado, who won the 200 fly and booked his ticket to Paris earlier this week, checked-in 3rd overall at 52.25.

The final heat saw Katsuhiro Matsumoto (52.44) hit the wall 0.09 ahead of Tomoru Honda (52.53). Both are already on the Japanese Olympic team, with Matsumoto snagging gold in the 200 free (1:45.29) with a qualification time earlier in the week. Honda placed 2nd to Terakado in the 200 fly while also notching a QT.

Honda won the 200 fly world title last month in Doha, and has been battling an ankle injury for the past month. Honda missed the 400 IM final earlier this week, an event that is widely considered to be his second best behind the 200 fly, as he’s been as quick as 4:09.98.

Both Mizunuma and Matsumoto have been sub-51 in the past, and Kawamoto and Ishikawa are within a tenth of joining them in that club. The Japanese Olympic standard rests at 51.43, and while the qualification times have been important all week, this one will likely be about placing top two rather than the question of whether they’ll hit the standard or not.

Of note, Shinnosuke Ishikawa, who owns a best time of 51.11 in this event, was 18th this morning at 53.33 to miss the semifinals altogether.

Japan’s Depth Chart In The Men’s 100 Butterfly, Sub-51.2 or Faster:

  1. Naoki Mizunuma (50.81)
  2. Katsuhiro Matsumoto (50.96)
  3. Takeshi Kawamoto (51.00)
  4. Shinnosuke Ishikawa (51.11)

In the women’s 200 IM, defending Olympic Champion Yui Ohashi led the way in 2:14.32. Ohashi is the national record holder in the event (2:07.91) and won the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with a time of 2:08.52. She missed out on qualifying for Paris in the 400 IM earlier in the competition, an event where she is also the defending Olympic Champion. She has focused more on this 200m distance since though, but she’ll need to clock the qualifying time of 2:10.70 once the final rolls around on Sunday night.

Mio Narita, who briefly held the world junior record in the 400 IM, was 2nd overall this morning at 2:15.23. Narita already qualified for Paris via her 1st place performance in the 400 IM here in Tokyo, where she scored a new lifetime best of 4:35.40. Narita’s personal best in this shorter IM distance, 2:10.70, matches Japan’s qualifying standard down to the hundredth.

There were two notable absences in the field: Runa Imai and Rikako Ikee. It’s not too surprising that Ikee didn’t compete, as she has only focused on 50m and 100m distances since returning to swimming after her battle with Leukemia. Even before then, she preferred to focus on the 200 free (1:54.85), which was once her 2nd best Olympic-level event. It’s worth noting that her 200 IM lifetime best stands at 2:09.98 from 2017, when she briefly held the world junior record. Ikee did feature in the 50 free today, as expected, which occurred later in the session.

Imai’s decision to not enter was more shocking, as it’s always been one of her better events, but she hasn’t recently neared her 2017 best time of 2:09.99 from when she was 16-years-old. Imai was 3rd in Friday’s 200 breast final, where she touched in 2:23.69. If she were to match her best time of 2:22.98 from last April in that race, she would’ve won and dipped under the QT of 2:23.31. Imai has chosen to focus mostly on breaststroke in recent years. Though not discussed much, Imai is very versatile, and can race a variety of different disciplines:

  • 50 Freestyle — 24.93
  • 100 Freestyle — 54.82
  • 100 Breaststroke — 1:06.91
  • 200 Breaststroke — 2:22.98
  • 200 IM — 2:09.99
  • 400 IM — 4:41.52

In the women’s splash and dash, Nagisa Ikemoto was fastest to the wall in 25.14. Ikee was the next closest competitor at 25.20, and both will have their eyes set on the qualifying time of 24.55 for Sunday’s final, presuming they both advance after Saturday’s semifinal round. Ikee is the national record holder (24.21) in this event, and posted the mark back at the 2018 Japanese Championships.

In distance action, Waka Kobori (8:32.88) claimed the top seed for the women’s 800 free final. Airi Ebina (8:36.77) situated herself in 2nd overall going into the final, sitting about four seconds back from Kobori.

22-year-old Ebina dropped over 10 seconds to win the 1500 free on Thursday, where she clocked in at 16:07.00. Kobori threw down a 4:06.20 to place 2nd in the 400 free on day one, missing gold by just 0.10. No Japanese swimmer hit the qualification time of 4:05.34 in that 400m race.

They’ll need to hit the 8:22.49 qualifying time for the 800m during Sunday’s final to earn an Olympic berth, and neither have been near that mark before. Kobori owns a career-best of 8:26.67 while Ebina has never broken 8:30.

In the men’s 1500 free, Shogo Takeda secured 1st place honors. He finished in 15:08.79 to clear the field by about two seconds. His best time of 14:55.42 from 2018 is under the Japanese Olympic cut of 14:56.31, but he will need to be at his absolute best for Sunday’s final. Akitsugu Hirai (15:10.54) was the closest competitor to Takeda today, and he also owns a best time under the nomination standard (14:56.10), but he recorded that effort in 2015.

SwimSwam: Yui Ohashi And Naoki Mizunuma Make Their Presence Known During Day 7 Heats of Japanese Trials

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