Sun Yang, Tae Hwan Park Setup Epic 200 Free Matchup at Asian Games

Photo Courtesy: Tobiuo Japan

INCHEON, South Korea, September 20. Although this morning didn’t feature a whole lot of fast swimming because of the dearth of competition to push the top-tier talent, that talent certainly set up some potential barnburners during finals of the Asian Games.

LIVE RESULTS

Scheduled Events

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

Men’s 200 free

Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch

Although Tae Hwan Park certainly drew the top cheers from his home crowd, China’s Sun Yang won the first matchup with the top qualifying time in 1:48.90. Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, the most consistent swimmer from Asia at this point this year, powered his way to second in 1:48.99, while teammate Takeshi Matsuda took third in 1:50.20.

Park wound up settling for fourth overall in 1:50.29, off his second-ranked time of 1:45.25 from Korean Nationals.

China’s Li Yunqi (1:50.43), Singapore’s Kai Quan Yeo (1:50.91), Vietnam’s Quy Phuoc Hoang (1:51.00) and Taipei’s Yen Hsin Huang (1:51.08) also made their way into the championship finale tonight.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 400 free

China went 1-2 in qualifying in the women’s middle distance event as Bi Yirong (4:12.27) and Zhang Yuhan (4:12.82) were the only swimmers to break 4:14 this morning.

Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi hit the wall third in 4:14.29 with teammate Asami Chida posting a fourth ranked 4:14.80, while Thailand had a pair of qualifiers as well with Sarisa Suwannachet (4:16.82) and Benjaporn Sriphanomthorn (4:17.05) placing fifth and sixth.

South Korea’s Suyeon Kim (4:17.18) and Malaysia’s Cai Lin Khoo (4:18.07) rounded out the championship eight.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Men’s 100 back

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, the defending champion who also ranks second in the world with a 52.57 from Japanese Nationals this year, crushed prelims with a sizzling time of 53.87. That time fell just off Irie’s meet record of 53.61 set during the 2010 edition of this event in Guangzhou, China.

China’s Xu Jiayu, the world leader with a 52.34 from Chinese Nationals, finished second in 54.60 with Japan’s Kosuke Hagino setting up a double with a third-place 54.86 after finishing second in the 200 free prelims.

Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Tarabrin (55.51), South Korea’s Seonkwan Park (55.72), Indonesia’s Gede Siman Sudartawa (56.35), Turkmenistan’s Merdan Atayev (56.63) and South Korea’s Taejeong Im (56.74) also made the championship heat.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 100 breast

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

A trio of swimmers managed to clear 1:09 to set up a big-time battle in tonight’s finale in the 100 breaststroke. Japan’s Kanako Watanabe (1:08.18), China’s Shi Jinglin (1:08.34) and Japan’s Satomi Suzuki (1:08.83) all put up 1:08s this morning.

It should be a fun finale with Watanabe ranked second in the world this year with a 1:05.88, while Suzuki is fifth in the world with a 1:06.48. Shi is 13th overall with a 1:07.16 and should easily bypass that time tonight.

South Korea’s Minji Kwon (1:09.30), China’s He Yun (1:09.95), Hong Kong’s Yvette Kong (1:10.50), South Korea’s Jiwon Yang (1:11.02) and Kyrgyzstan’s Daria Talanova (1:11.62) also were able to earn transfer spots into the championship.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Men’s 200 fly

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

In an incredibly sparse field, the top eight of just 11 total swimmers advanced to the finale. That meant this morning certainly featured some measured swims since the top swimmers certainly were not missing out on the finale.

Japan’s Daiya Seto (1:57.18) and Kenta Hirai (1:59.74) moved their way to the top of the heap with a 1-2 finish, while China’s Hao Yun (1:59.76) and Wang Pudong (1:59.83) placed third and fourth.

Singapore’s Joseph Schooling (1:59.92), Taipei’s Chi Chieh Hsu (2:01.38), South Korea’s Gyucheol Chang (2:01.81) and Hong Kong’s Tin Yu Ling (2:03.89) also made the finale.

Top Splits

[table “” not found /]

Women’s 400 free relay

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu

The Chinese foursome of Qiu Yuhan, Chen Xinyi, Sun Meichen and Zhou Yilin put on a show this morning with a 3:39.41 to lead all qualifying teams by a wide margin.

China’s Splits: 3:39.41

[table “” not found /]

Other qualifying teams were Japan (3:43.05), Hong Kong (3:45.70), South Korea (3:46.89), Singapore (3:52.63), Taipei (3:52.97), Thailand (4:00.38) and Mongolia (4:40.01)

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