Morita Sets National Record in 100 Backstroke at Japanese National Champs

By Hideki Mochizuki

TOKYO, Japan, April 21. THE headliner of the second day of the Japanese National Championships was Tomomi Morita, who smashed the Japanese 100 backstroke record on two occasions Friday, once in the preliminaries and again in the final. Morita followed his 54.12 with a 53.85 effort. Morita was the bronze medalist in this event at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Fourth in the event at last year’s World Championships in Montreal, Morita turned in third place at the 50-meter mark but boosted his speed right after the turn. The former Japanese record was his own with a 54.20 posted at last year’s National Sports Festival. “My goal is much higher but (this swim is) pretty satisfactory,” Morita said. It was his fifth straight win in the event at Nationals.

Morita is currently coached by Yoji Suzuki, who is now the head coach of the Japan National Swim Team and was the coach for Daichi Suzuki, who obtained the gold medal in the men’s 100 backstroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Coach Suzuki also led Hanae Itou to a win tonight in the women’s 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.65. The swim just missed Mai Nakamura’s Japanese record of 1:00.55 by a tenth of a second. Itou won the event for the second consecutive year. The silver medalist was Reiko Nakamura with a 1:00.88. Both qualified with Standard I times, and thus were selected for both the Pan Pac and World Championships.

In the men’s 200m butterfly, Takashi Yamamoto made a comeback to the pool after retirement following Athens. He swam very well with a 1:57.02 to touch the pad in a second-place tie with Takeshi Matsuda. However, they could not beat Ryuichi Shibata who posted an effort of 1:55.27. Shibata’s personal best is 1:55.11 from last year’s Japanese collegiate championships. Shibata grabbed a spot for both the Pan Pac and World Championships. It will be likely that Yamamoto, Matsuda and Shibata will represent Japan at Pan Pacs in this event. Yamamoto and Matsuda will compete for another spot for the World Championships. The 200 fly for the women went to Yurie Yano in 2:08.34.

Hidemasa Sano, the sixth-place place finisher in the men’s 400 individual medley at the Montreal World Championships showed stable speed to win that event with a 4:16.78. In the 200 freestyle races, Maki Mita was victorious among the women in 2:00.13 while Yuuji Sakurai was the male winner with a time of 1:49.84.

One Japanese national high school record was recorded in the men’s 1500 freestyle by Kenichi Doki with time of 15:17.03.

Event No. 31 MEN 1500m Freestyle Final WR 14:34.56
NR 15:09.52
Rank Name Nat. YB 800m Time ( R.T.)
100m 200m 300m 400m 500m 600m 700m
1 DOKI KENICHI JPN 88 8:08.77 15:17.03 HR ( 0.69)
59.21 2:00.31 3:02.00 4:03.32 5:04.73 6:05.97 7:07.22
8:08.77 9:10.36 10:11.84 11:13.21 12:14.61 13:15.81 14:17.22
2 ISHIMURA GEN JPN 85 8:12.99 15:25.16 ( 0.75)
59.37 2:01.48 3:03.72 4:05.93 5:07.72 6:09.62 7:11.15
8:12.99 9:14.91 10:16.98 11:18.20 12:20.96 13:23.53 14:25.07
3 SONONAKA RYOJI JPN 85 8:11.09 15:25.93 ( 0.83)
58.55 1:59.79 3:00.79 4:02.76 5:04.54 6:06.70 7:08.70
8:11.09 9:13.28 10:15.53 11:17.96 12:20.32 13:22.55 14:25.03
4 TAKAYAMA HIROKI JPN 82 8:16.69 15:33.78 ( 0.85)
59.49 2:01.52 3:03.91 4:06.42 5:08.95 6:11.27 7:14.07
8:16.69 9:19.29 10:22.04 11:24.75 12:27.67 13:30.45 14:32.94
5 KOJIMA RYOTAROU JPN 87 8:17.28 15:39.41 ( 0.80)
58.39 2:00.41 3:03.03 4:05.56 5:08.35 6:11.32 7:14.32
8:17.28 9:20.45 10:23.70 11:27.14 12:30.35 13:34.21 14:38.21
6 MATSUMURA GOU JPN 84 8:23.07 15:46.82 ( 0.72)
59.95 2:02.34 3:05.46 4:09.09 5:12.54 6:16.27 7:19.94
8:23.07 9:26.14 10:29.58 11:33.36 12:37.45 13:41.21 14:44.83
7 TOUGOU TAKAYUKI JPN 87 8:23.57 15:47.29 ( 0.86)
58.07 2:00.81 3:03.57 4:06.84 5:10.85 6:14.75 7:19.05
8:23.57 9:28.08 10:32.22 11:35.66 12:39.28 13:43.00 14:45.97
8 NISHIO YUUKI JPN 88 8:22.64 15:57.18 ( 0.71)
59.24 2:01.66 3:04.33 4:07.45 5:11.39 6:15.23 7:18.95
8:22.64 9:26.73 10:31.21 11:35.76 12:40.86 13:46.90 14:52.41

Event No. 33 MEN 400m Individual Medley Final WR 4:08.26
NR 4:14.79
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m 100m 150m 200m 250m 300m 350m
1 SANO HIDEMASA JPN 84 4:16.78 ( 0.63)
26.40 56.52 1:29.66 2:02.50 2:39.00 3:16.22 3:46.74
2 TANIGUCHI SHINYA JPN 81 4:17.07 ( 0.84)
27.25 58.14 1:32.09 2:05.21 2:41.69 3:18.22 3:48.08
3 OKUDE TAISHI JPN 83 4:19.01 ( 0.71)
27.17 58.64 1:32.51 2:06.13 2:42.87 3:19.51 3:49.62
4 MIKI JIROU JPN 83 4:22.83 ( 0.67)
27.17 58.36 1:32.13 2:05.27 2:42.58 3:20.98 3:52.72
5 SYOJI YUUTA JPN 84 4:23.41 ( 0.69)
26.80 58.08 1:30.97 2:04.84 2:43.45 3:22.92 3:53.78
6 TABUCHI SUSUMU JPN 80 4:23.76 ( 0.78)
27.49 58.60 1:32.58 2:06.35 2:43.98 3:22.22 3:53.24
7 YOSHII JUN JPN 82 4:24.11 ( 0.66)
27.10 58.59 1:33.31 2:08.14 2:45.02 3:22.14 3:53.90
8 FUJIMOTO SYOTA JPN 84 4:24.63 ( 0.63)
27.46 58.71 1:33.02 2:06.93 2:44.18 3:21.62 3:53.77

Event No. 35 WOMEN 100m Backstroke Final WR 59.58
NR 1:00.55
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m
1 ITOu HANAE JPN 85 29.71 1:00.65 ( 0.64)
2 NAKAMURA REIKO JPN 82 29.44 1:00.88 ( 0.59)
3 TERAKAWA AYA JPN 84 29.99 1:01.52 ( 0.54)
4 IGARASHI TAKAMI JPN 84 30.67 1:02.31 ( 0.67)
5 SAITOU YOSHIKO JPN 83 30.54 1:02.33 ( 0.57)
6 TAKEMURA MIYUKI JPN 89 30.87 1:02.63 ( 0.59)
7 FUKUDA TOMOYO JPN 89 30.79 1:02.96 ( 0.61)
8 SOGABE RINA JPN 85 30.72 1:03.33 ( 0.65)

Event No. 37 MEN 100m Backstroke Final WR 53.17
NR 54.12
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m
1 MORITA TOMOMI JPN 84 26.32 53.85 NR ( 0.51)
2 YAMAGUCHI MASAFUMI JPN 84 26.27 54.52 ( 0.57)
3 MIYASHITA JUNICHI JPN 83 26.19 54.67 ( 0.58)
4 NAKANO TAKASHI JPN 84 26.81 55.44 ( 0.53)
5 UCHIDA SYOHEI JPN 87 27.15 55.77 ( 0.52)
6 YAMANOI KENTA JPN 82 26.96 55.79 ( 0.56)
7 IRIE RYOSUKE JPN 90 27.25 55.82 ( 0.56)
8 WATANABE KAZUKI JPN 87 27.04 56.09 ( 0.48)

Event No. 39 WOMEN 200m Butterfly Final WR 2:05.61
NR 2:07.99
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m 100m 150m
1 YANO YURIE JPN 88 2:08.34 ( 0.79)
29.22 1:02.07 1:35.14
2 NAKANISHI YUUKO JPN 81 2:08.55 ( 0.67)
29.17 1:02.31 1:35.58
3 AKIYAMA NATSUKI JPN 91 2:11.05 ( 0.82)
29.90 1:03.15 1:36.92
4 HARUGUCHI SAORI JPN 87 2:12.08 ( 0.69)
29.46 1:02.68 1:36.95
5 MINAMIZONO HARUKA JPN 90 2:12.23 ( 0.82)
30.19 1:03.75 1:37.65
6 IIKUBO MAMI JPN 87 2:12.89 ( 0.76)
29.78 1:04.17 1:38.51
7 OTOBE MAI JPN 88 2:13.68 ( 0.72)
29.73 1:03.33 1:38.39
8 OKUMURA AYAKA JPN 88 2:14.98 ( 0.68)
30.08 1:04.40 1:39.06

Event No. 41 MEN 200m Butterfly Final WR 1:53.93
NR 1:54.56
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m 100m 150m
1 SHIBATA RYUICHI JPN 83 1:55.27 ( 0.66)
25.75 54.43 1:24.09
2 YAMAMOTO TAKASHI JPN 78 1:57.02 ( 0.68)
26.15 55.61 1:25.76
2 MATSUDA TAKESHI JPN 84 1:57.02 ( 0.72)
26.56 56.13 1:26.54
4 SAKATA RYUSUKE JPN 85 1:58.27 ( 0.67)
26.80 56.32 1:27.00
5 YOKOYAMA YUUKI JPN 84 1:58.79 ( 0.65)
26.46 56.92 1:27.84
6 SOMEHARA DAIZABUROU JPN 87 1:59.19 ( 0.76)
26.66 56.57 1:27.65
7 MUTOU MAKOTO JPN 84 1:59.21 ( 0.65)
26.75 57.37 1:28.60
8 KANEDA KAZUYA JPN 87 2:00.23 ( 0.66)
26.55 56.98 1:28.55

Event No. 43 WOMEN 200m Freestyle Final WR 1:56.64
NR 1:58.78
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m 100m 150m
1 MITA MAKI JPN 83 2:00.13 ( 0.72)
28.47 58.83 1:29.92
2 URABE NORIE JPN 86 2:00.57 ( 0.67)
28.07 58.62 1:29.56
3 UEDA HARUKA JPN 88 2:00.85 ( 0.79)
28.62 59.04 1:30.31
4 TAKANABE EMI JPN 85 2:02.22 ( 0.71)
29.05 59.84 1:31.22
5 HASAGAWA YUKIMI JPN 85 2:02.58 ( 0.76)
28.91 59.98 1:31.45
6 TANAKA HIRO JPN 88 2:03.11 ( 0.76)
28.81 59.70 1:31.60
7 YAMAGUCHI MISAKI JPN 90 2:03.30 ( 0.75)
29.08 1:01.07 1:32.11
8 TAINAKA CHIKA JPN 91 2:03.95 ( 0.72)
29.08 1:00.31 1:32.30

Event No. 45 MEN 200m Freestyle Final WR 1:44.06
NR 1:48.87
Rank Name Nat. YB Time ( R.T.)
50m 100m 150m
1 SAKURAI YUUJI JPN 84 1:49.84 ( 0.70)
25.99 53.65 1:22.04
2 HOSOKAWA DAISUKE JPN 82 1:50.11 ( 0.69)
25.72 54.02 1:22.49
3 KOJIMA TAKAMITSU JPN 81 1:50.18 ( 0.74)
25.12 53.01 1:21.86
4 OKUMURA YOSHIHIRO JPN 83 1:50.55 ( 0.69)
26.40 54.79 1:22.86
5 MONONOBE YASUNORI JPN 85 1:50.82 ( 0.75)
26.35 54.87 1:23.48
6 MATSUNO KEISUKE JPN 83 1:50.85 ( 0.65)
26.31 55.27 1:23.79
7 UCHIDA SYO JPN 87 1:50.88 ( 0.68)
26.29 54.63 1:22.96
8 MATSUMOTO HISATO JPN 84 1:51.03 ( 0.76)
26.37 54.30 1:22.94

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