Yamada, Nishikori Smash National Records on Day 3 of Japanese Champs

By Hideki Mochizuki and Takahisa Ide

TOKYO, April 24. TWO national records were broken on Day Three of the 79th Japanese National Championships at Tatsumi Pool in Tokyo.

The first came in the women's 1500 meter freestyle, where 400 free winner Sachiko Yamada had no problem in disposing of her competition, and sending a signal to Europe and the Americas that she'll be ready for Worlds. Yamada touched in a world-leading 16:12.75, breaking her own Japanese mark by nearly four full seconds. Second place went to Ai Shibata, more than twenty seconds behind Yamada at 16:34.94.

Men's distance swimming in Japan seems to be a sore spot for the national program at the moment, as the men's 800 free was won by Takeshi Matsuda in a lackluster 8:02.92, with Shunichi Fujita taking second even further back at 8:05.87.

In the absence of Japanese superwoman Tomoko Hagiwara, Maiko Fujino took a clear-cut win in the women's 200 meter individual medley. Her time of 2:16.32 was more than a second faster than second place Misa Amano (2:17.70).

Medley swimming doesn't seem to be a problem for the Japanese men though, as Jiro Miki took a swift 200 IM win at 2:00.69, with Hidemasa Sano behind him at 2:01.73, good for second place.

Semifinal action was almost more intriguing than the finals today, as two of Japan's top female swimming stars made a resurgence to the elite ranks of world swimming. Masami Tanaka, who has been training in the United States with Curl-Burke, leads after semifinals of the women's 200 meter breaststroke with a 2:26.43, and Olympic medalist Mai Nakamura, back in the pool after toying with retirement, has posted the third fastest time going into tomorrow's 100 backstroke final (1:01.93). Noriko Inada leads qualifiers with her clocking of 1:01.86, just one-hundredth ahead of Reiko Nakamura.

To the surprise of no one, 200 meter breaststroke world record-holder Kosuke Kitajima leads all qualifiers in his pet event, with a scorching 2:10.59 in semifinals, and Atsushi Nishikori finally destroyed the oldest Japanese men's record on the books. His semifinal time of 54.54 in the men's 100 meter backstroke broke the 15 year-old national record of 55.05 set by Daichi Suzuki in his upset win over David Berkoff at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Other top qualifiers for tomorrow's night finals are Tomoko Nagai in the women's 200 free (2:01.98), Yoshihiro Okumura in the men's 200 free (1:50.71), and Junko Onishi (27.48) and Ryo Takayasu (24.59) leading women's and men's 50 fly qualifiers, respectively.

RESULTS

Women 1500m Freestyle Final
Rank name Time note
1 Sachiko Yamada 16:12.75 NR
2 Ai Shibata 16:34.94
3 Yumi Kida 16:40.81
4 Yukiko Tsukurimichi 16:46.98
5 Chika Yonenaga 16:48.96
6 Kanae Iwai 16:56.29
7 Shiho Yoshimura 17:13.72
8 Masae Maehara 17:17.03

Men 800m Freestyle Final
Rank Name time
1 Takeshi Matsuda 8:02.92
2 Shunichi Fujita 8:05.87
3 Yota Arase 8:06.29
4 Takehiro Miyajima 8:08.66
5 Yuki Ihara 8:08.72
6 Yu Inoue 8:08.73
7 Tsuyoshi Matsumura 8:17.64
8 Kenji Takaya 8:21.76

Women 200m IM Final
Rank Name time ‘g
1 Maiko Fujino 2:16.32
2 Misa Amano 2:17.70
3 Yukako Akagi 2:17.86
4 Sawami Fujita 2:18.83
5 Tsukushi Irita 2:19.06
6 Saki Yamashina 2:19.36
7 Yukari Arai 2:20.12
8 Megumi Inoue 2:21.03

Men 200m IM Final
Rank Name time
1 Takahiro Mori 2:00.64
2 Jiro Miki 2:01.69
3 Hidemasa Sano 2:01.73
4 Shinya Taniguchi 2:02.38
5 Yuta Shoji 2:02.75
6 Jun Yoshii 2:03.06
7 Makoto Hasegawa 2:03.54
8 Susumu Tabuchi 2:03.63

Women 200m Freestyle Semi-Final
Rank Name time
1 Tomoko Nagai 2:01.98
2 Mai Aoyagi 2:02.93
3 Norie Urabe 2:03.34
4 Kaori Yamada 2:03.39
5 Maki Mita 2:03.40
6 Akina Okura 2:03.67
7 Madoka Ochi 2:03.94
8 Haruka Aoki 2:04.03
9 Ikuo Gyoten 2:04.41
10 Haruka Ueda 2:04.42
11 Manami Yamamoto 2:04.62
12 Yuka Kobayashi 2:04.63
13 Saki Akao 2:04.66
14 Naomi Asari 2:05.74
15 Ayaka Fujishima 2:06.37
16 Tomoko Ono 2:06.69

Men 200m Freestyle Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Yoshihiro Okumura 1:50.71
2 Daisuke Hosokawa 1:50.78
3 Hideaki Hara 1:51.01
4 Tomohiro Okuno 1:51.17
5 Gen Ishimura 1:51.24
6 Hisato Matsumoto 1:51.34
7 Takamitsu Kojima 1:51.45
8 Shunichi Fujita 1:51.53
9 Yuji Sakurai 1:51.59
10 Yosuke Ichikawa 1:51.66
11 Shusuke Ito 1:52.24
12 Yoshitaka Takeuchi 1:52.57
13 Akiyoshi Nishii 1:52.82
14 Masayuki Fujimoto 1:53.27
15 Satoshi Usui 1:54.68
16 Hiroaki Akebe 1:56.88

Women 200m Breast Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Masami Tanaka 2:26.43
2 Fumiko Kawanabe 2:28.89
3 Yuko Sakaguchi 2:31.58
4 Kahori Sato 2:31.64
5 Mami Kida 2:31.83
6 Megumi Taneda 2:31.96
7 Sayaka Nakamura 2:32.23
8 Atsuko Sakuma 2:32.25
9 Nanaka Tamura 2:32.35
10 Kasumi Sakamoto 2:32.62
11 Haruna Kubota 2:32.65
12 Aya Washio 2:33.29
13 Reina Miyazaki 2:33.32
14 Yuka Nishito 2:33.66
15 Misuzu Okuda 2:35.98
16 Naoko Wada 2:36.15

Men 200m Breast Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Kosuke Kitajima 2:10.59
2 Yuki Sato 2:14.15
3 Daisuke Kimura 2:14.63
4 Genki Imamura 2:15.49
5 Taiki Kawagoe 2:16.19
6 Shigenori Sato 2:16.23
7 Chikara Nakashita 2:16.24
8 Yoshiyuki Abe 2:16.49
8 Yasuhiro Baba 2:16.49
10 Yuichi Narisawa 2:17.07
11 Takahiro Nezu 2:17.24
12 Ryota Yoshida 2:17.60
13 Takeo Sasaoka 2:17.66
14 Toshiki Saito 2:17.67
15 Taro Morita 2:17.71
16 Tubasa Horiike 2:18.15

Women 100m Backstroke Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Noriko Inada 1:01.86
2 Reiko Nakamura 1:01.87
3 Mai Nakamura 1:01.93
4 Hanae Ito 1:02.19
5 Aya Terakawa 1:02.44
6 Nozomi Nobe 1:03.10
7 Ko Tanaka 1:03.15
8 Tomoe Abe 1:03.26
9 Eri Tabei 1:03.48
10 Masaki Oikawa 1:03.56
11 Sahi Tanaka 1:03.60
12 Yoshimi Takeuchi 1:03.75
13 Aya Shimoda 1:03.78
14 Yoshiko Saito 1:04.15
15 Nobuko Maeda 1:04.23
16 Kimi Igarashi 1:04.26

Men 100m Backstroke Semi Fainal
Rank Name Time note
1 Atsushi Nishikori 54.54 NR
2 Mizuki Wakabayashi 55.70
2 Junichi Miyashita 55.70
4 Toshifumi Takeuchi 55.82
5 Tomomi Morita 56.14
6 Kenta Yamanoi 56.64
7 Haruki Takeuchi 56.67
8 Takashi Nakano 56.86
9 Masafumi Yamaguchi 56.87
10 Naoya Sonoda 56.92
11 Tomoaki Giga 57.04
12 Naoyuki Watanabe 57.07
13 Tsuyoshi Kitashita 57.13
14 Masamu Otsuka 57.22
15 Kentaro Kitada 57.27
16 Ryutaro Hayashi 58.02

Women 50m Butterfly Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Junko Onishi 27.45
2 Yuko Nakanishi 27.87
3 Kozue Watanabe 27.89
4 Ayako Doi 27.90
5 Yuki Miyatake 28.02
6 Nozomi Nakamura 28.03
7 Yuka Kato 28.14
8 Natsumi Mizuochi 28.39
9 Rina Hayashi 28.40
9 Mai Kobayashi 28.40
11 Natsuko Kazumoto 28.41
12 Ayaka Okumura 28.43
13 Yuka Yamashita 28.46
14 Haruna Kawasaki 28.47
15 Ayano Kuroki 28.48
16 Reina Yoshitani 28.75

Men 50m Butterfly Semi Final
Rank Name time
1 Ryo Takayasu 24.59
2 Takashi Yamamoto 24.66
3 Kohei Kawamoto 24.69
4 Takahiko Yoshida 24.87
5 Katsuhiko Morita 24.91
6 Yasutake Takamatsu 24.98
7 Mazumasa Matsushita 25.04
7 Daisuke Abe 25.04
9 Kazuhiro Asanuma 25.06
10 Yoshihiro Sugawara 25.08
11 Sunsuke Kiba 25.19
12 Takuro Fujii 25.22
13 Yosuke Shimizu 25.25
14 Tadahisa Hashizume 25.35
15 Yu Kondo 25.49
16 Kenta Ishii 25.50

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