TOKYO, Japan, February 20. DURING the preliminary heats of the 2009 Japan Open held in Tokyo, Japan, several national short course meter records took a tumble.
China's Zhao Jing and Japan's Asami Kitagawa notched national records for their respective countries in the women's 100 IM. Zhao ripped off a time of 1:00.50 to beat the 1:00.60 set by Hu Xiaown back in 1998. Kitagawa, meanwhile, qualified second with a time of 1:00.72 to clear the 1:01.02 set by Maiko Fujino in 2003.
1 ZHAO Jing CHN 90 27.81 1:00.50 ( 0.85)
2 KITAGAWA ASAMI JPN 87 28.48 1:00.72 NR ( 0.76)
The women's 50 back followed with Aya Terakawa clocking a 26.87 to beat the Japanese record of 27.00 set by Mai Nakamura
1 TERAKAWA AYA JPN 84 26.87 ( 0.57)
Later, Hiroki Katou became the first man from Japan to clear 23 seconds in the men's 50 fly with a 22.99. The performance wiped out the 23.17 set by Ryo Takayasu in 2005.
1 KATOU HIROKI JPN 87 22.99 NR ( 0.73)
The meet also features some international flavor with American Peter Vanderkaay, Sweden's Therese Alshammar, Australia's Jade Edmistone and South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg and Cameron van der Burgh competing.