Junya Koga, Ryosuke Irie Lower Games Record in 50 Back on Day Two Prelims of Asian Games

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

INCHEON, South Korea, September 21. A day after the Japanese men put on a show at the Asian Games, they were back with a vengeance this morning during day two prelims. Junya Koga and Ryosuke Irie both downed the men’s 50-meter backstroke meet record, while plenty of other top swimmers put up quality times this morning.

LIVE RESULTS

Scheduled Events

Women’s 50 fly
Men’s 50 back
Women’s 100 free
Men’s 200 IM
Women’s 200 breast

Women’s 50 fly

Singapore’s Li Tao and China’s Lu Ying tied for the top seed in the women’s sprint fly with matching 26.46s. Lu has been much faster with an eighth-ranked 25.94 from Chinese Nationals, while Tao holds an 18th-ranked 26.26 from the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

Japan’s Misaki Yamaguchi (27.11), Hong Kong’s Hang Yu Sze (27.12), South Korea’s Sehyeon An (27.16), Kazakhstan’s Elmira Aigaliyeva (27.19) and China’s Liu Lan (27.22) also made their way into the championship heat.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Seojin Hwang and Japan’s Miho Teramura set up a swimoff for the final spot with eighth-place 27.50s. Hwang wound up winning the swimoff, 27.12 to 27.62.

Men’s 50 back

Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer/ProSwimVisuals.com

Junya Koga’s Games record of 25.08 from the 2010 edition in Guangzhou fell twice this morning in back-to-back heats. First, Japan’s Ryosuke Irie blasted a time of 25.07 in heat 2, before Koga returned fire with a blistering 24.46 in heat 3 to reclaim the record. Notably, China’s Xu Jiayu posted a 25.04 in the final heat, under the first record, but not a record having taken place after Koga’s 24.46.

Koga vaulted from sixth in the world with a 24.66 at the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum to second behind Camille Lacourt’s 24.37 from French Nationals with his swim. Xu, meanwhile, came up short of his fifth-ranked 24.58 from Chinese Nationals, while Irie has an 10th-ranked season best of 24.86 from Japanese Nationals with tonight’s finale likely putting up some scary-fast times.

Indonesia’s Gede Siman Sudartawa (25.40), South Korea’s Seonkwan Park (25.60), China’s Sun Xiaolei (25.68) and Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Tarabrin (25.68) safely made the finale.

Turkmenistan’s Merdan Atayev and Uzbekistan’s Daniil Bukin set up another swimoff with matching 26.31s for eighth-place. Bukin came back in the swimoff to win, 26.27 to 26.40.

Women’s 100 free

(140819) -- Nanjing,Aug 19,2014 (Xinhua) -- Gold medalist Shen Duo of China celebrates after the women's 100m Freestyle final of swimming event of Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 19, 2014. (Xinhua/Ding Xu) (txt)

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu

China had a strong outing in the women’s 100 free with a 1-2 finish. Shen Duo, the FINA World Junior Record holder with a 53.84 from the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing where she won multiple gold medals in front of a home crowd, led the way with a 55.25. Right behind, Tang Yi wound up second in 55.35. Both will likely break Tang’s meet record of 54.12 from the 2010 edition in Guangzhou during finals tonight, and could make a run at Pang Jiaying’s Asian record of 53.13 from 2009 in Jihan, China.

Japan’s Miki Uchida finished third in 55.48, the only other sub-56 of the morning. Japan’s Yayoi Matsumoto (56.09), Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (56.12), Hong Kong’s Camille Cheng (56.68), South Korea’s Miso Ko (56.69) and Thailand’s Natthanan Junkrajang (56.73) also made their way into the finale.

Top Splits

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Men’s 200 IM

Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch

A night after winning a pair of medals with a gold in the 200 free and a bronze in the 100 back, Japan’s Kosuke Hagino qualified third overall in the men’s 200 IM with a 2:00.85. He was likely just cruising through prelims, and should put on a show tonight considering he set the Asian record earlier this year with a 1:55.38 to lead the world rankings.

Teammate Hiromasa Fujimori turned in the top seed with a 2:00.75. He’s ranked seventh in the world with a 1:57.77 from Japanese Nationals, while Singapore’s Joseph Schooling is in line for a second medal after qualifying second in 2:00.78.

China’s Wang Shun (2:02.39), Indonesia’s Triady Sidiq (2:02.47), China’s Mao Feilian (2:03.26), South Korea’s Wonyong Jung (2:03.91) and Uzbekistan’s Aleksey Derlyugov (2:04.00) all earned transfer spots into the championship heat as well.

Top Splits

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Women’s 200 breast

Photo Courtesy: Peter H.Bick

Japan went 1-2 in the women’s 200 breast with Rie Kaneto leading the way well out front in 2:25.42, while Kanako Watanabe took second in 2:27.17. That’s two of the top three swimmers in the world this year with Watanabe (2:21.09) and Kaneto (2:21.58) standing 2-3 behind Rikke Moeller Pedersen’s sizzling time of 2:19.61 from the Eindhoven Swim Cup.

South Korea’s Suyeon Back wound up third in 2:28.57 with China’s Shi Jinglin placing fourth in 2:29.43.

China’s Zhang Xinyu (2:30.70), South Korea’s Minji Kwon (2:33.11), Thailand’s Phiangkhwan Pawapotako (2:33.28) and Taipei’s Pei Wun Lin (2:33.80) will also compete in the finale.

Top Splits

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