Olympic Silver Medalist Matsushita Reaps 400 IM Gold At JPN Student Championships
05/09/2024 18:08
By Retta Race on SwimSwam
100th JAPAN STUDENT CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, September 5th – Sunday, September 8th
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
The 100th edition of the Japan Student Championships got underway today from Tokyo with multiple Olympians taking to the pool.
19-year-old Tomoyuki Matsushita, Japan’s sole swimming medalist in Paris, took on his pet event of the men’s 400m IM. Matsushita sneaked to the wall just .14 ahead of runner-up Kosuke Makino to give his Toyo University squad the gold.
Matsushita clocked a time of 4:11.20 to Makino’s 4:11.34 while Hayate Yamaguchi rounded out the top 3 performers in 4:13.39.
As a refresher, Matsushita put up a time of 4:08.62, a new lifetime best, when he earned runner-up status behind world record holder and gold medalist Leon Marchand of France (4:02.95) in Paris.
A member of the Japanese women’s 13th placed 4x200m free relay in Paris, Nagisa Ikemoto, topped the women’s 100m free podium.
Representing Chuo, Ikemoto hit a time of 54.09 as one of two sub-55-second swimmers. Joining her was Yume Jinno who notched 54.78 and then Hazuki Yamamoto registered 55.00 for bronze.
Ikemoto is Japan’s 3rd-swiftest women’s 100m freestyler in history, owning a lifetime best of 53.92 from last year.
For the men’s 100m free, it was Meiji’s Gomi Tomonobu who got it done for gold. Tomonobu logged 48.77 as the sole athlete under the 50-second barrier.
Tomonobu’s effort fell just .02 outside his career-quickest mark of 48.75 turned in last year to check in as Japan’s #6 all-time performer.
Additionally, Olympic semi-finalist Hidekazu Takeharawas too swift to catch in the men’s 200m backstroke.
The Toyo swimmer posted a time of 1:56.05 to win the event for the 2nd consecutive year. His effort destroyed the 1:58.03 he registered for 15th place, as well as the 1:57.23 prelims swim he hit in prelims in Paris.
In fact, Takehara’s result here represents a new personal best, erasing the 1:56.28 produced at this year’s Olympic Trials.
Additional Winners
- The women’s 400m IM saw Aya Suzuki post a time of 4:42.73 to give her Nippon team gold.
- Narumi Nagaoka was the top women’s 200m backstroker with a result of 2:10.25. That got her to the wall less than half a second from Yuzuki Mizuno who touched in 2:10.55 for silver.
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