Potential Sizzlers Set Up For Finals During Day Four Prelims at Asian Games

Photo Courtesy: Tobiuo Japan

INCHEON, South Korea, September 23. The fourth day of preliminary competition at the Asian Games did not produce any ground-breaking swims as sparse fields led to most of the top talent cruising into finals. But, there were enough high-profile match-ups set up for tonight that it could be one of the fastest evenings of swimming this week.

LIVE RESULTS

LIVE STREAM

Scheduled Events

Men’s 100 fly
Women’s 200 free
Men’s 100 breast
Women’s 200 fly
Men’s 400 IM
Women’s 100 back
Men’s 400 free relay

Men’s 100 fly

Photo Courtesy: Peter H.Bick

Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer/ProSwimVisuals.com

A trio of 52s went up on the board this morning as Japan’s Takuro Fujii and Singapore’s Joseph Schooling tied for the top seed in the men’s 100 fly with matching 52.83s. Meanwhile, Li Zhuhao of China put up a 52.98 to qualify third overall. All three are well within striking distance of Zhou Jiawei’s Games record of 51.83 from the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

China’s Zhang Qibin (53.24), Japan’s Hirofumi Ikebata (53.34), South Korea’s Gyucheol Chang (53.44), Indonesia’s Glenn Sutanto (53.86) and Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Cheah (53.97) all broke 54 seconds to make the championship finale.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 200 free

Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi turned in the top time of the morning with a 2:00.48 in the first heat and no one else was able to overcome it. Igarashi, however, will have some serious competition tonight as three-time Asian Games gold medalist Shen Duo of China qualified second in 2:01.17.

Swimming World had an exclusive conversation with Shen’s age group coach Ron Turner this morning following her transcendent win in the 100 free. She is easily one of the brightest stars in China this summer.

Japan’s Yasuko Miyamoto hit the wall third this morning in 2:01.36, while China’s Tang Yi placed fourth in 2:01.43.

The big question is just how much the top swimmers kept in the tank, considering the Asian Games record is a 1:56.65 by Zhu Qianwei from 2010. All of the top four swimmers have the potential to take it down.

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (2:01.47), South Korea’s Junghye Kim (2:01.93), Hong Kong’s Camille Cheng (2:02.33) and Thailand’s Natthanan Junkrajang (2:02.71)

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Men’s 100 breast

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

Yasuhiro Koseki, the seventh-ranked swimmer in the world with a 59.62 at the Pan Pacific Championships, picked up the top time in the prelims with a 1:01.39. Meanwhile, 200 breast victor Dmitriy Balandin, who dropped six seconds off his national record in Kazakhstan into the 2:07 range last night, took second in prelims in the 100 in 1:01.55.

Uzbekistan’s Vladislav Mustafin (1:01.64) and China’s Li Xiang (1:01.91) also cleared 1:02 to qualify third and fourth this morning.

Japan’s Naoya Tomita (1:02.20), South Korea’s Janghun Ju (1:02.33), South Korea’s Kyuwoong Choi (1:02.39) and China’s Mao Feilian (1:02.76) managed to also make their way into the championship heat.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 200 fly

Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch

With just nine swimmers to begin with, only Singapore’s Jing Tan missed out on the finale with a 2:21.31. Meanwhile, Japan went 1-2 in prelims with Natsumi Hoshi (2:13.64) and Miyu Nakano (2:13.87) taking the top two spots. The morning definitely wound up with some significantly slow swims, but no one really needed to go fast when they only had one swimmer to beat.

Games-record holder Jiao Liuyang took third in 2:13.95 with world-record holder Liu Zige placing fourth in 2:14.38 for China.

Singapore’s Ting Wen Quah (2:15.24), South Korea’s Sehyeon An (2:17.11), Thailand’s Patarawadee Kittiya (2:17.96) and Thailand’s Sutasinee Pankaew (2:19.18) also made the finale.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Men’s 400 IM

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

In another sparsely contested event where finals will likely see huge time drops from prelims, Japan’s Daiya Seto (4:15.94) and Kosuke Hagino (4:18.77) put up the top two times in the morning. Hagino, who is on record as saying he wants to become Japan’s Michael Phelps as a multi-event gold medalist, already has won three golds, a silver and a bronze here at the Asian Games this week. He’ll be in line for another medal tonight in the distance medley.

China’s Huang Chaosheng (4:19.13), China’s Yang Zhixian (4:19.33), South Korea’s Wonyong Jung (4:26.18), Vietnam’s Duy Khoi Tran (4:29.05), Taipei’s Ren Hau Wen (4:30.33) and Taipei’s Fu Yu Hsiao (4:30.66) also earned spots in the championship heat.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 100 back

Photo Courtesy: Azaria Basile

Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Rudenko kept up her nation’s strong meet so far with a 1:01.10 to lead the way this morning, while China’s Wang Xueer (1:01.39) and Fu Yuanhui (1:01.88) put up second and third-place finishes in the event.

Japan’s Miyuki Takemura (1:02.03), Japan’s Shiho Sakai (1:02.07), Hong Kong’s Claudia Lau (1:02.52), South Korea’s Dalin Lee (1:02.67) and Hong Kong’s Stephanie Au (1:02.86) turned in the rest of the championship heat times.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Men’s 400 free relay

Photo Courtesy: Peter H.Bick

The Japanese contingent of Shinri Shioura, Rammaru Harada, Kenta Ito and Katsumi Nakamura put up a top-seeded time of 3:17.41, while the Chinese foursome of Hao Yun, Xu Qiheng, Lin Yongqing and Liu Junwu raced to the second seed in 3:19.73. China, however, with the addition of the likes of Chinese record holder Ning Zetao to the team tonight, will battle Japan for the Asian Games record of 3:16.34 from 2010.

South Korea (3:21.64), Hong Kong (3:24.04), Taipei (3:25.85), Uzbekistan (3:26.22), India (3:27.87) and Indonesia (3:28.32) will also compete for the Asian Games title tonight.

Japan’s Splits: 3:17.41

[table “” not found /]

China’s Splits: 3:19.73

[table “” not found /]

Twitter Coverage

For up to the minute coverage, follow us on Twitter @SwimmingWorld:

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use