17-Yr-Old Yumeki Kojima Nears WJR, Rips 1:55.62 200 Backstroke Lifetime Greatest In Japan

102nd JAPAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 102nd Japan Swimming Championships noticed day three transpire on the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with swimmers vying for any potential remaining slots on the nation’s roster for this 12 months’s Pan Pacific Championships.

17-year-old Shin Ohashi placed on a clinic en path to profitable the lads’s 200m breaststroke occasion, ripping a speedy in-season time of two:07.31.

Ohashi break up 28.72/33.05 (1:01.77)/32.42/33.12 to notch the Fifth-swiftest effort of his younger profession.

17-Yr-Old Shin Ohashi‘s Top 5 LCM 200 Breaststroke Performances

1. 2:06.59 – 2026 Japan Swim
2. 2:06.91 – 2025 All Kinki High School Swimming Championships
3. 2:06.96 – 2025 Japan Open
4. 2:07.27 – 2025 All Osaka High School Swimming Championships
5. 2:07.31 – 2026 Japanese Swimming Championships

He owns the World Junior document on this occasion, courtesy of the two:06.59 he put up on the Japan Swim in March to grow to be the Seventh-fastest man in historical past. Ohashi additionally owns the WJR within the 100m breast on account of the 58.67 he scorched at that very same competitors.

Tonight it was Yu Hanaguruma, the 2022 World Championships silver medalist on this occasion, who earned runner-up standing, though he touched over two seconds again in 2:09.71.

Shunya Kimura rounded out the rostrum in 2:10.29. Of notice, three-time World Championships medalist Ippei Watanabe settled for tenth out of the heats in 2:11.79. He finally added a while to complete in 4th place out of the B-final in a mark of two:12.12.

Olympic silver medalist Tomoyuki Matsushita dove in for the ultimate of the lads’s 200m IM, the place he discovered success in a time of 1:57.28.

He narrowly held off Kosuke Makino, who touched a hair behind in 1:57.32, whereas Yuta Watanabe was additionally proper there within the combine, bagging the bronze in 1:57.84 to proceed the nation’s storied historical past on this occasion.

With the Asian Games on the horizon, Japan owns 4 of the slots among the many high ten performers on the earth in the mean time.

Behind Hungarian dynamo Hubert Kos‘ time of 1:55.60, Matsushita ranks #2 together with his season-best of 1:55.60. Makino is third in 1:55.85, and newly minted World Junior document holder Yumeki Kojima is slotted sixth in 1:56.53. So Ogata is ranked ninth in 1:57.28.

Speaking of Kojima, the versatile 17-year-old opted for the 200m again over the 200m IM this night, the place he put up a blistering outing of 1:55.62 to determine a monster private greatest.

Splitting 27.25/29.08 (56.33)/29.59/29.70, the 5-time World Junior Championships medalist laid waste to his former career-quickest of 1:56.70 notched eventually September’s Japan Games. That means he hacked almost a second off that former outing to clear the 1:56 barrier for the primary time.

Hidekazu Takehara was subsequent to the wall, hitting the timepad simply .18 later in 1:55.80. Kodai Nishiono additionally landed on the rostrum in 1:57.06, ok for bronze.

22-year-old Takehara entered this meet already ranked sixth on the earth from logging 1:55.50 final September.

Kojima now checks in because the Seventh most fast man on the planet, together with his time placing the longstanding World Junior document on discover. That benchmark of 1:55.14 that Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov placed on the books in 2017 could be very a lot inside attain for Kojima.

Additionally, at simply 17, Kojima now ranks as Japan’s Fifth-fastest performer in historical past.

Top 5 Japanese Men’s LCM 200 Backstroke Performers All-Time

1. Ryosuke Irie – 1:52.51, 2009
2. Kosuke Hagino – 1:54.23, 2014
3. Hidekazu Takehara – 1:55.50, 2025
4. Keita Sunama – 1:55.54, 2018
5. Yumeki Kojima – 1:55.62, 2026

35-year-old Olympic medalist Satomi Suzuki continues to defy age, clocking a time of two:24.79 so as to add the ladies’s 200m breast win to her victory within the 100m dash final night time.

Suzuki held off Pan Pacific Junior Championships multi-medalist Kotomi Kato, who settled for silver in 2:26.41, simply forward of 17-year-old Mana Ishikawa. Ishikawa, who earned 100m breast bronze final night time, added one other piece of {hardware} with a mark of two:26.67.

At the 2024 Olympic Games, Suzuki completed twelfth general on this occasion (1:06.90), whereas she collected a 4th-place end within the 200m breast (2:22.54). She has a trio of Olympic medals to her credit score, having earned 200m breast silver, 100m breast bronze and ladies’s medley relay bronze on the 2012 Games in London.

World Championships silver medalist Mio Narita topped the ladies’s 200m again podium, hitting a mark of two:09.82 as the only competitor to delve underneath the two:10 threshold.

The versatile 19-year-old was inside placing distance of her best-ever efficiency on this occasion, a time of two:09.54 from the 2025 Kosuke Kitajima Cup.

Kyoka Sawa delivered a efficiency of two:11.17 because the runner-up, and Rio Shirai bagged the bronze in 2:11.38 tonight.

Additional Notes

• Katsuhiro Matsumoto proved too fast to catch within the males’s 100m free, placing up a time of 48.55 to get to the wall first. World Championships bronze medalist Tatsuya Murasa was instantly behind in 48.60, though he was 48.59 within the heats. Takaki Hara rounded out the rostrum in 48.83.
• Japan’s 2nd-best 1500m free performer Kazushi Imafuku acquired it finished for gold, posting 15:05.28 in what was primarily a two-man race. Kaito Tabuchi, the reigning nationwide document holder, touched in 15:05.53 whereas Daichi Yamamoto secured the bronze in 15:16.44. Tabuchi’s Japanese customary rests on the 14:45.47 he notched simply this previous March. Imafuku’s PB checks in on the 14:50.18 earned final 12 months.
• The ladies’s 100m free noticed 23-year-old Olympian Nagisa Ikemoto flip in a mark of 54.79, the only outing of the sphere underneath the 55-second barrier. Behind her was Rio Suzuki , who reached the wall in 55.05, adopted by Ayu Mizoguchi, who claimed bronze in 55.40.
• Three-time Olympian Rikako Ikee grabbed gold within the ladies’s 50m fly, posting 25.85 for the victory. She stays ranked Fifth on the earth on the season as a result of 25.55 notched at March’s Japan Swim. Tonight, Ai Soma snagged the silver in 25.97, and University of Tennessee standout Mizuki Hirai wrapped up third place in 26.28.
• Finally, the ladies’s 800m free had Waka Kobori do her factor for gold, placing up an effort of 8:41.27 for a wholesome benefit over the pack. Rin Mitsuzagi nabbed silver in 8:43.18, as Ruka Takezawa‘s outing of 8:43.85 earned her the bronze.