2024 Japan Olympic Trials
The 2024 Japan Olympic Trials was on its seventh day, and the final qualifying session was held. The tournament itself will span eight days, but there will be no heat sessions on the final day of the tournament. Five events were held in Tokyo this morning: 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, one of the deepest events in this week's records, the national record holder Naoki Mizunuma He became the only person to swim in less than 52 seconds. He hit the wall in the morning with speeds in the 51.75s, breaking 24.43/27.32 en route to winning heat five.
29-year-old Takeshi Kawamoto With a qualifying score of 52.19 points, they earned the second seed into the semifinals. He passed the opening 50 in the fastest time, breaking 24.30/27.89 and winning heat 4 of 6. Temple gate Genkiwon the 200 fly, booked a ticket to Paris earlier this week, and checked in third overall with a score of 52.25.
the last heat saw Katsuhiro Matsumoto (52.44) 0.09 I hit the wall in front of me. Tomoru Honda (52.53). Both are already on Japan's Olympic team, with Matsumoto setting a qualifying time earlier this week to win gold in the 200 free (1:45.29). Honda placed second behind Terakado in the 200 fly and also won the QT.
Honda won the 200 fly world title in Doha last month, but has been battling an ankle injury for the past month. Honda missed the 400 IM final earlier this week, but his time in the event was 4:09.98, widely considered the second fastest after the 200 fly.
Mizunuma and Matsumoto have achieved sub-51 in the past, and Kawamoto and Ishikawa are also within a tenth of joining that club. Japan's Olympic standard record is 51.43 seconds, and while qualifying times have been important all week, this time it will be less about hitting the mark and more about finishing in the top two.
It should be noted that Shinnosuke Ishikawahas the best time in this event with a time of 51.11 seconds, but this morning he finished 18th with a time of 53.33 seconds, completely missing out on advancing to the semi-finals.
Japan's depth chart for men's 100 butterfly, sub 51.2 and above:
- Naoki Mizunuma (50.81)
- Katsuhiro Matsumoto (50.96)
- Takeshi Kawamoto (51.00)
- Shinnosuke Ishikawa (51.11)
Defending Olympic champion in women's 200IM Yui Ohashi He took first place with a time of 2:14.32. Ohashi holds the Japanese record for this event (2:07.91) and won at 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, which is also her defending Olympic champion. Since then, she has focused more on this 200m distance, but she needs to record a qualifying time of 2:10.70 when the final is held on Sunday night.
Mio Naritabriefly held the world junior record in the 400 IM, but this morning he was second overall with a time of 2:15.23. Narita has already qualified for Paris after taking first place in the 400 IM here in Tokyo, running a lifetime best of 4:35.40. Narita's personal best record of 2:10.70 for this short IM distance matches the Japanese qualification standard for 100th place.
There were two notable absences on the field. Runa Imai and Rikako Ikee. Since returning to swimming following a battle with leukemia, Ikee has focused solely on the 50m and 100m distances, so it's no surprise that she didn't compete. Even before that, she preferred to focus on the 200m free (1:54.85), once her second-best event at Olympic level. It's worth noting that her 200IM lifetime best record is 2:09.98 from 2017, when she briefly held her world junior record. As expected, Ikee competed in today's 50 free, but that happened late in the session.
Imai's decision not to compete was all the more shocking as it has always been one of her better tournaments, but recently she has not come close to her 2017 best time of 2:09.99 when she was 16 years old. Imai placed third in Friday's 200 breast final in 2:23.69. If she had matched her personal best time of 2:22.98 from last April in that race, she would have won and beat QT 2:23.31. In recent years, Imai has chosen to focus primarily on breaststroke. Although it is not often discussed, Imai is extremely versatile and she can race in a variety of disciplines.
- 50 Freestyle — 24.93
- 100 Freestyle — 54.82
- 100 Breaststroke — 1:06.91
- 200 Breaststroke — 2:22.98
- 200 minutes — 2:09.99
- 400 minutes — 4:41.52
In the women's splash and dash, Nagisa Ikemoto The fastest time to the wall was 25.14 seconds. Ikee is then the closest competitor with a time of 25.20 seconds, and assuming both advance after Saturday's semifinal round, both will focus on Sunday's final qualifying time of 24.55 seconds. Ikee holds the Japanese record in this event (24.21 seconds) and also set the mark at the 2018 Japan Championships.
The women's 50th breast heat was also in full swing. Satomi Suzuki He scored 30.87 points and took the top spot in the qualifying round. Suzuki won both the 100m and 200m, earning her a ticket to Paris and is aiming to conquer the breaststroke event in Tokyo.
With remote control, Waka Kobori (8:32.88) Earned the top seed for the women's 800m free final. Airi Ebina (8:36.77) He entered the final in 2nd place overall, about 4 seconds behind Kobori.
The 22-year-old Ebina dropped more than 10 seconds in the 1500 free on Thursday, winning in 16:07.00. Kobori finished second in the 400 free on the first day with a time of 4:06.20, missing out on the gold medal by just 0.10 seconds. In that 400-meter race, no Japanese athlete achieved the qualifying time of 4:05.34.
To qualify for the Olympics, both athletes need to achieve a qualifying time of 8:22.49 for the 800 meters in Sunday's final, and neither athlete has ever come close to that time. Kobori has a career best of 8 minutes 26.67 seconds, but Ebina has never broken 8 minutes 30 seconds.
In the men's 1500 free, Shogo Takeda We secured the honor of 1st place. He finished in 15 minutes, 08.79 seconds, and was in first place with a difference of about 2 seconds. His best time of 14:55.42 in 2018 is short of Japan's Olympic record of 14:56.31, but he will need to maintain his best time in Sunday's final. Shoji Hirai (15:10.54) is Takeda's closest competitor today, and he also owns the best time under the nomination criteria (14:56.10), but that record was set in 2015.
