Japan and China Post Top Qualifying Times in Day Six of Asian Games Swimming Prelims

INCHEON, South Korea, September 25. THE final day of long course swimming competition at the Asian Games is underway, with preliminary heats in five events set to determine which country will emerge as the top team in the meet. Dmitriy Balandin will be looking for a sweep of the men’s breaststroke events, while Ye Shiwen will line up in the 200 IM.

LIVE RESULTS

Scheduled Events

  • Women’s 50 free
  • Men’s 50 breast
  • Women’s 200 back
  • Men’s 1500 free (slowest of timed final heats)
  • Women’s 200 IM
  • Men’s 400 medley relay

Women’s 50 free

Miki Uchida, fresh off breaking the Japanese record in the 50 free at the Japan Intercollegiate championships, took the top seed today with a 25.35. She set the Japanese mark at 25.02 just a couple of weeks ago, and will have that time as her target.

China went 2-3 in qualifying as Xinyi Chen (25.37) and Tang Yi (25.58) will give Uchida a push in an attempt to sweep the top podium spots. Also qualifying for the final were: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (25.72), Japan’s Yayoi Matsumoto (25.78), Singapore’s Xiang Lim (25.81), Jaeyoung Lee of South Korea (25.95) and Nur Chan of Singapore (26.21).

Men’s 50 breaststroke

Dmitriy Balandin is attempting to do what no one else has been able to do this week at the Asian Games. He’ll try to win three gold medals in the same stroke, but he’ll find it a little more difficult in the 50-meter distance. He qualified fourth with a 28.49. He’ll be challenged by Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki, who posted a 27.92 to lead qualifying. Sanjeep Sejwal is looking to put India on the medal table in swimming, qualifying second with a 28.25. Myunghwan Kim of South Korea qualified third with a 28.45.

Also getting into the top eight were: Shuai Wang of China (28.57), Xiang Ma of China (28.58), Vladislav Mustafin of Uzbekistan (28.58) and Chun Wong of Hong Kong (28.66).

Women’s 200 back

A relatively slow pace allowed Japan’s Sayaka Akase to cruise through the prelims of the 200 back today, qualifying first with a 2:11.35. Her best time this season is a 2:08.76 from the Japan Open for eighth in the world rankings. Behind her is China’s Jie Chen, who swam a 2:12.93 for second ahead of the 2:13.83 by Japan’s Marie Kamimura.

Also making it into the final were: Thia Nguyen of Vietnam (2:13.96), Yin Lau of Hong Kong (2:14.32), Fu Yuanhui of China (2:14.53), Doryun Lee of South Korea (2:15.17) and Dalin Lee of South Korea (2:16.30).

Men’s 1500 free

The single timed final heat of the prelim session featured a win by Cheng Cho of Chinese Taipei with a 15:40.54. That time will not likely get a top-five finish in the event, with the likes of Sun Yang, Tae Hwan Park and Kohei Yamamoto set for sub-15:00 swims and the remainder of tonight’s field trying to stay close.

Finishing second in this morning’s heat was Welson Sim of Malaysia with a 15:43.04. Sim held the lead for 1000 meters before Cho turned on the afterburners. Guo Huang was third in the heat with a 15:50.30.

Women’s 200 IM

After rattling her world record for the first two-thirds of the 400 IM final, all eyes will be on Ye Shiwen in tonight’s final. The reigning Olympic champion cruised to the top seed with a 2:11.20, which is just a prelude to what could unfold tonight.

The rest of the field is fighting for the minor medals. Japan’s duo of Miho Teramura and Kanako Watanabe qualified second and third, respectively, with times of 2:13.91 and 2:14.08. China’s Zhou Min is in the hunt as well after posting a 2:15.45 in the heats.

Seoyeong Kim of Korea (2:16.20), Ronokhon Amanova of Uzbekistan (2:16.56), Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong (2:16.71) and Yoosun Nam of South Korea (2:16.89) will swim in the last individual event final of the meet.

Men’s 400 medley relay

In an interesting twist, Japan put its top swimmers in the prelim heats, an unusual practice for a country that has plenty of backup swimmers available to give the faster swimmers the morning off. Ryosuke Irie (54.13), Yasuhiro Koseki (1:00.61), Hirofumi Ikebata (54.14) and Shinri Shioura (51.12) swam a 3:40.00 for the fastest qualifying time. They’ll be much faster tonight, with the meet record of 3:34.10 possibly on the line.

China was second with a 3:41.69, but might not be able to challenge Japan’s depth in the strokes. In third was South Korea with a 3:44.02. The meet hosts will likely add Tae Hwan Park to the freestyle leg, though he might struggle a bit after swimming the 1500 earlier in the session.

Hong Kong (3:45.23), Indonesia (3:45.93), Singapore (3:46.73), Chinese Taipei (3:46.78) and Uzbekistan (3:50.88) will close out the meet in tonight’s session. Notably, Hong Kong fell just shy of the national record of 3:45.15.

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