2018 World Cup Tokyo: Sjostrom Tops Two at Day Two Prelims

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Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA

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Sarah Sjostrom took two top seeds on the second day of competition in Tokyo. The World Cup star posted the fastest times in the 200 Freestyle and 50 Butterfly. Katinka Hosszu could also double up on wins on night two while Vladimir Morozov will look to continue his dominance in this World Cup series.

Live Results

Men’s 1500 Freestyle

Fourteen swimmers raced in the early heats of the men’s 1500. Keiya Tamaru was the only athlete under fifteen minutes, coming in at 14:57.59. The race was close with Kaiki Furuhata (15:03.55) and Kenshi Yamamoto (15:09.13) through the halfway point, with Tamaru pulling away in the final 400 meters. The swims will try to withstand those from Mykhailo Romanchuk, Sergii Frolov, Shogo Takeda and more in the final.

Women’s 400 IM

The early heats of the women’s 400 IM went to Mayuko Gotou in 4:37.50. With eight swimmers remaining, Waka Kobori holds the second-best time at 4:37.75 while Mina Muroki has the third with a 4:38.06. The final will feature Katinka Hosszu, Yui Ohhashi and Miku Kozima among others.

Men’s 200 IM

Kosuke Hagino (1:54.59) and Wang Shun (1:54.81) led the way in a stacked 200 IM field. Australia’s Matthew Wilson (1:55.16) led the remaining six qualifiers who all finished within half of a second of each other.

Of note, Travis Mahoney and Hiromasa Fujimori, who both hold top ten world rankings in this event, missed out on the final by finishing ninth and tenth.

Beating them out for spots in the final were Ippei Watanabe (1:55.22), Keita Sunama (1:55.53), Tomoya Takeuchi (1:55.60), Mitchell Larkin and Juran Mizohata (1:55.63).

Women’s 200 Freestyle

Sarah Sjostrom and Femke Heemskerk, the top two performers in the world this year, led the 200 Freestyle in 1:55.15 and 1:55.27, respectively. After medaling in both the 400 and 50 Freestyles on day one, Heemskerk was out the lead at the 100, but cruised home for the second seed. Rio Shirai (1:55.49) and Tomomi Aoki (1:55.64) were not far behind.

Also racing in the final will be Reva Foos of Germany (1:56.30), Signe Bro of Denmark (1:56.41), Madison Wilson of Australia (1:56.46) and Aya Takano (1:56.79).

Men’s 100 Freestyle

Kyle Chalmers opened up his night with a quick 100 Free of 47.07, just five tenths off his season best. One one hundredth behind was USA’s Blake Pieroni in 47.08. The two will likely battle it out for second behind Vladimir Morozov who set a World Record in last night’s 100 IM and holds the world’s fastest time this year by nearly a full second.

Rounding out the heat will be Kousuke Matsui (47.90), Kaiya Seki (47.92), Louis Townsend (47.95), Dylan Carter (48.06) and Kousuke Kai (48.09).

Women’s 100 Backstroke

With another backstroke race in this World Cup series will come another battle between Hosszu (56.62), Emily Seebohm (56.75) and Minna Atherton (56.88). Hosszu is the World Record holder in this event while Seebohm has been quicker this year. Atherton has had a successful run in the backstroke events as well through Tokyo. They will be challenged by Shirai (57.53), Takemura (57.60), Kira Toussaint (57.83), Rika Yuhara (58.25) and Emi Moronuki (58.26).

Men’s 50 Backstroke

In the men’s race, Xu Jiayu took the top seed in 23.34 ahead of USA’s Michael Andrew (23.42) and Larkin (23.62). Carter (23.73), Yakov Toumarkin of Israel (23.75), Takeshi Kawamoto (23.85), Christian Diener (23.86) and Junya Hasegawa (23.88) placed fourth through eighth.

Women’s 50 Butterfly

The women’s races continued to set up some intense battles for the podium as Sjostrom (25.21), Rikako Ikee (25.31), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.40) and Pernille Blume (26.09) claimed the top four spots in the 50 Butterfly. O’Connor will also be in the mix with a 26.12 as will be Anna Shinno (26.19), Ai Souma (26.21) and Denmark’s Emilie Beckmann (26.22).

Men’s 200 Butterfly

China’s Li Zhuhao took the top seed in the men’s fly race with a time of 1:52.50. Zhuhao was out quick and then cruised in for the win in the back half. Takumi Terada was second in 1:52.86 with Masato Sakai third in 1:53.26.

Yuuya Yajima (1:53.35), Yuuya Sakamoto (1:53.41), Nao Horomura (1:53.59), Yuuto Ida (1:53.66) and Masayuki Umemoto (1:53.80) placed fourth through eighth.

Women’s 100 Breaststroke

Similar to the backstroke, the women’s 100 Breaststroke saw its usual competitors surge to the top ranks. Alia Atkinson got to the wall first in 1:05.14 with Yulia Efimova (1:05.65) and Vitalina Simonova (1:05.69) trailing close behind.

They will be challenged by Runa Imai (1:06.07), Great Britain’s Siobhan O’Connor (1:06.46), Reona Aoki (1:06.51), Great Britain’s Georgia Coates (1:06.69) and Denmark’s Rikke Pedersen (1:06.95).

Men’s 50 Breaststroke

Despite a lack of surprises in the women’s event, the same cannot be said for the men’s breaststroke in Tokyo. A fast and tight preliminary pushed Wilson and Andrew out of the final this time around. Yan Zibei took the fastest time of 26.36. Ilya Shymanovich (26.37), Kirill Prigoda (26.49) and Peter Stevens (26.52) added some regularity in this event with their second-, third- and fourth-place finishes.

Yuuki Matsumura (26.66), Ryuto Shioiri (26.67), Masaki Niiyama (26.69) and Yasuhiro Koseki (26.71) will also race in the final.

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