Photo by Peter H. Bick

INCHEON, South Korea, September 24. Day five of preliminary swimming competition at the Asian Games will give multiple swimmers the opportunity to set themselves up for more hardware. Kosuke Hagino will be going after his seventh medal of the meet in the 200 backstroke, with countryman Ryosuke Irie standing in his way as the defending champion.

LIVE RESULTS

Scheduled Events

• Men’s 50 fly
• Women’s 50 breast
• Men’s 100 free
• Women’s 800 free (slowest of timed final heats)
• Men’s 200 back
• Women’s 400 medley relay

Men’s 50 fly

China, Japan and Korea each placed two swimmers in the 50 butterfly final, with the lead qualifying time going to China’s Shi Yang and his 23.80. The only other swimmer under 24 seconds in the heats was Korea’s Jungdoo Yang with a 23.91, just off his national record of 23.84. Joe Schooling of Singapore, last night’s 100 fly winner, qualified third with a 24.10. He tied Zhou Jiawei’s Asian record of 23.43 at the Commonwealth Games in July, and will be looking to replicate that swim to win a second gold medal.

China’s Zhang Qibin (24.12), Japan’s Hirofumi Ikebata (24.17) and Takuro Fujii (24.19), Korea’s Seokhwan Yun (24.31) and Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Cheah (24.41) rounded out the top eight. Cheah’s time broke his own national record of 24.68 from last year’s World University Games.

Women’s 50 breast

In her only event of the meet, Suo Ran of China made a big impression in the 50 breast heats, qualifying first with a 31.59. Right behind in second is Japan’s Kanako Watanabe with a 31.81, looking for her second gold medal of the meet after winning the 200 breast. He Yuzhe of China was third-fastest with a 31.83.

The rest of the final eight in the championship heat will include: Japan’s Satomi Suzuki (31.98), Jiwon Yang of Korea (32.47), Yvette Kong of Hong Kong (32.47), On Kei Lei of Macau (32.83) and Ruen Ho of Singapore (33.21).

Men’s 100 free

Tae Hwan Park is still looking for a gold medal in the arena that bears his name, and with adversaries Sun Yang and Kosuke Hagino not racing the 100 free, he appears to have a clear line to gold in the sprint event. Park posted the sole swim under 50 seconds in the heats with a 49.76. Rammaru Harada of Japan was second with a 50.20, while China’s Ning Zetao and Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Cheah tied for third with times of 50.43 for both of them.

Rounding out the top eight were: Yu Hexin of China (50.54), Shinri Shioura of Japan (50.59), Quy Hoang of Vietnam (50.65) and Clement Lim of Singapore (50.86).

Women’s 800 free

This is conducted as a timed-final event, with just one heat swum in today’s preliminaries and the fastest eight in tonight’s finals session. Lynette Lim, a graduate of the University of Southern California, posted the fastest time with an 8:52.41. That’s well off her national record of 8:35.41 from 2009, and now she waits to see what place that will earn her after tonight’s heat.

Men’s 200 back

What was predicted to be a two-man race for gold in the 200 back turned into a three-man battle after today’s prelim swims. Xu Jiayu of China, out for blood after missing gold in the 50 and 100 backstrokes, put up a 1:58.50 in today’s heat, beating out defending champion Ryosuke Irie of Japan, who posted a 1:58.93 for second seed. Sneaking into the third spot was Korea’s Taejeong Im with a 1:59.23, while gold medal contender Kosuke Hagino of Japan did what was needed to get into the final with a 2:00.34 for fourth.

Xu, Irie and Hagino have all been much faster, and will look to push past the 1:55 barrier tonight. Irie is the Asian record holder (1:52.51) and top swimmer in 2014 (1:53.91). Hagino ranks second in the world with a 1:54.23, while Xu will need to improve on his lifetime best of 1:55.11 from earlier this year to break the Japanese stranglehold.

Also qualifying for the final were: Alexandr Tarabrin of Kazakhstan (2:02.45), Shih Lin of Chinese Taipei (2:04.13), Ricky Anggawidjaja of Indonesia (2:05.55) and Stanislav Ossinskiy of Kazakhstan (2:05.99).

Women’s 400 medley relay

The second prelim heat appeared to give fans a preview of tonight’s final, as China and Japan traded the lead throughout and posted the only times under 4:10. At first, the scoreboard showed that China had won the heat over Japan, 4:05.83 to 4:06.54. But moments later, the scoreboard erased the “1” next to China, as butterflyer Lu Ying drew a disqualification. That will have a major impact on rising star Shen Duo, who was set to swim freestyle in tonight’s final and earn possibly a fifth gold medal.

Japan now looks safe to grab gold, with second qualifier South Korea posting a 4:11.99. The rest of the final eight include: Hong Kong (4:19.35), Singapore (4:20.88), Chinese Taipei (4:25.30), Macau (4:8.43), Thailand (4:29.41) and Mongolia (5:14.32).