Streamlined News: April 5, 2012


PHOENIX, Arizona, April 5. THE Japanese Olympic Trials is becoming one of the fastest meets of the year, with several swimmers from Japan now owning the top times in the world in several events. Four events had world-leading times, and two of them were in semifinals.

Let's start with the women's 100 backstroke, where Aya Terakawa almost became the second woman under 59 seconds in a textile suit. She won with a 59.10, which is a lifetimes best and the fastest in the world in 2012. Terakawa has been on the Japanese national team for many years, winning a few international medals, but has not been able to break through at the biggest meets. Coming in second was Shiho Sakai, just beating out 34-year-old Noriko Inada by seven hundredths of a second. Neither swimmer was able to get under the fast time set by the Japanese federation for qualifying for the Olympic team, and Inada was looking to make her fourth Olympic team after qualifying in 1992, 2000 and 2004.

The 200 fly is looking like a banner event for the Japanese, as the country now has the top time in the women's and men's event. Natsumi Hoshi won the women's 200 fly with a 2:04.69, coming close to the textile best of 2:04.40 and becoming the fastest in the world by more than a second. Today's time would have won the world championship title last summer, where Hoshi placed fourth.

Takeshi Matsuda will be the top qualifier in tomorrow's men's 200 fly final with a 1:54.19 time from semifinals today. Matsuda is looking to improve on the bronze medal he won in the 200 fly at the 2008 Olympics and possibly even improve the silver he won at last summer's worlds. Matsuda's time today is just a tenth slower than he swam in Shanghai last July.

Ryo Tateishi and Kosuke Kitajima will do battle tomorrow in the men's 200 breast final after the two posted the fastest times in semifinals today. Tateishi will take lane four tomorrow based on his 2:09.02, and Kitajima will be in lane five after swimming a 2:09.25. Tateishi and Kitajima have gone head to head for the past three years, and tomorrow's battle could bring us the first — and possibly second — sub-2:09 swims of the year. Kitajima, of course, is looking to make the Olympic team in the 200 breast and get a chance to defend his Olympic titles in both breaststrokes.

On to China, where Wu Peng has avenged his poor performance in the 200 fly with a win in the 200 IM. His time of 1:59.50 puts him on the Chinese Olympic team after Wu was unable to get under the FINA A cut in the 200 fly. It's still unclear, however, if the Chinese swimming federation will take Wu's bronze medal swim in the 200 fly from worlds and put him on the Olympic roster in that event.

With the 800 free not being an Olympic event, Sun Yang seemingly did just enough to put up a fast time using as little energy as possible. He won with a 7:47.11, which is nine seconds slower than his world championship swim from last summer.

Zhao Jing, the 2011 world champion in the 100 back, finished fifth today with a 1:01.27. Zhao told the media that she's been suffering from a fever this week, and there may be a bright light ahead for Zhao, similar to what could happen for Wu Peng, in that China could use her time from worlds and put her on the Olympic team. That means only Fu Yuanhui would step in that second spot, even though Gao Chang, who finished second in the race today, swam under the FINA A standard.

A lot of news coming from Japan and China, and we're bringing you all the news from those meets as they happen on swimmingworld.com.

Checking in on the collegiate women's water polo standings, and UCLA has had a stranglehold at the top for the past five weeks. UCLA has been the top team in the nation since winning the UC Irvine Invite in February that has continued with a four-game winning streak. The Bruins have only lost one game this season and that was against the former number one team, Stanford, in early February. Stanford ranks number two in the coaches poll, with Southern Cal and Arizona State rounding out the top four.

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