Meet Records For Tomoru Honda And Siobhan Haughey In Monaco As Pair Rattle Rankings

Tomoru Honda: Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS / ISL

Olympic silver medallists Tomoru Honda and Siobhan Haughey set meet records in the 200 fly and 200 free respectively at the final stop of the Mare Nostrum tour in Monaco.

Olympic silver medallist Honda was 0.02 behind Richard Marton at 50 but went ahead on the second lap to reach halfway in 54.92 for a 0.09 lead over Krzysztof Chmielewski.

A second 100 of 59.30 then propelled Honda into the wall in 1:54.22 to slice 0.46 from the previous meet mark of 1:54.68 that had stood to fellow Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto since 2015.

It was the third-fastest swim of the year behind Kristof Milak‘s world lead of 1:52.58 from the Hungarian Championships and Honda’s own season’s best of 1:53.54 from the Japanese nationals.

Chmielewski was second in 1:55.09 with Noe Ponti taking third in 1:55.42.

Haughey Plunders Riches In Monaco

Siobhan Haughey: Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Haughey continued the golden form that indicates she’ll be firmly in the mix at the World Championships when she set a 200 free meet record of 1:55.03, completing a Mare Nostrum clean sweep in the process.

It catapulted the Hong Kong swimmer to third in the rankings behind Summer McIntosh and her WJR of 1:53.91 and Katie Ledecky‘s 1:54.96.

It was the fourth-swiftest of Haughey’s career, headed by her Asian record of 1:53.92 en-route to Olympic silver in Tokyo.

In the process, she lowered the previous meet record of 1:55.21 set by Camille Muffat in 2012, the same year in which the Frenchwoman won three Olympic medals in London.

Canadian duo Mary-Sophie Harvey (1:57.75) and Brooklyn Douthwright (1:58.58) were next home behind Haughey.

Jacoby And Watanabe Continue Fine Form

Lydia Jacoby followed up her 1:05.84 victory in Barcelona with another voyage inside 1:06 in the 100br.

The Olympic champion splits 31.27/34.72 to clock 1:05.99 for a comprehensive victory over Reona Aoki (1:07.04) and Anastasia Gorbenko (1:07.25).

Ippei Watanabe made it a clean sweep of the Men’s 200 breaststroke events, adding the Monaco title to his wins in Canet and Barcelona in 2:09.41.

Ceccon Back On Top

Thomas Ceccon: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / deepbluemedia

World record-holder Thomas Ceccon produced his second 100 back of the season, splitting 26.13/27.32 to win in 53.45.

Ksawery Masiuk (53.97) and Yohann Ndoye Brouard (54.30) were next home in Monaco while Laura Bernat won the women’s 200 in 2:09.76.

Matsumoto Pulls Away For Victory

Just 0.06 separated Katsuhiro Matsumoto, Ruslan Gaziev and Maxime Grousset at halfway of the 100 free with the Japanese swimmer leading the trio in 23.53.

A second 50 of 25.08 saw him extend his lead to touch in 48.61 ahead of Gaziev (48.78) and Grousset (48.84).

Tomoyuki Matsushita won the men’s 200IM in 1:59.64 with Zsuzsanna Jakabos – set to compete at the Fukuoka words at 34 – taking the women’s 400IM in 4:42.62,

Katerine Savard won the women’s 100 fly in 58.25 and Kregor Zirk won the men’s 400 free in 3:50.24.

Sunday will bring to an end the 2023 Mare Nostrum tour in Monaco with swimmers heading off to a range of competition including the Sette Colli in Rome next month and the US trials for the Fukuoka worlds.

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