{"id":325401,"date":"2018-08-12T04:33:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T11:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=325401"},"modified":"2019-06-02T18:26:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T01:26:23","slug":"ippei-watanabe-wins-200-breast-title-in-front-of-home-crowd-andrew-wilson-scratches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ippei-watanabe-wins-200-breast-title-in-front-of-home-crowd-andrew-wilson-scratches\/","title":{"rendered":"Ippei Watanabe Wins 200 Breast Title In Front Of Home Crowd; Andrew Wilson Scratches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan has been one of the historic powerhouses in the 200 breast, and on Sunday night in Tokyo at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Japan continued that dominance with a gold from world record holder\u00a0Ippei Watanabe<\/strong>. He missed his world record, but was still quick enough for gold at 2:07.75, breaking the meet record that\u00a0Josh Prenot\u00a0<\/strong>set in the heats<\/a> at 2:08.02.<\/p>\n

Watanabe held off a serious challenge from the Australian duo of\u00a0Zac Stubblety-Cook\u00a0<\/strong>(2:07.89) and\u00a0Matthew Wilson\u00a0<\/strong>(2:08.22). Wilson was leading through 150 meters and Stubblety-Cook split a 32.14 over the last 50. Stubblety-Cook had a huge time drop, moving up to tied for 19th all-time with Australian legend\u00a0Brenton Rickard\u00a0<\/strong>from 2009.<\/p>\n

It was a very tight battle as Japan’s\u00a0Yasuhiro Koseki\u00a0<\/strong>(2:08.25) and American\u00a0Josh Prenot\u00a0<\/strong>(2:08.44) finished off the podium in the very tight final.<\/p>\n

Koseki will be swimming breaststroke for Japan on their medley relay in a few minutes as he is the only one to do the double. American\u00a0Andrew Wilson\u00a0<\/strong>scratched the final here to focus on being his best for the medley relay.<\/p>\n

China’s\u00a0Wang Lizhuo\u00a0<\/strong>(2:11.49),\u00a0Liu Yunsong\u00a0<\/strong>(2:12.27) and\u00a0Canada’s\u00a0Eli Wall\u00a0<\/strong>(2:13.56) also swam in the championship final.<\/p>\n

2018 World Rankings:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Anton Chupkov<\/strong>, RUS, 2:06.80<\/li>\n
  2. Josh Prenot<\/strong>, USA, 2:07.28<\/li>\n
  3. Ippei Watanabe<\/strong>, JPN, 2:07.56<\/li>\n
  4. Zac Stubblety-Cook<\/strong>, AUS, 2:07.89<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. James Wilby<\/strong>, GBR, 2:08.05<\/li>\n
  6. Matthew Wilson<\/strong>, AUS, 2:08.22<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. Yasuhiro Koseki<\/strong>, JPN, 2:08.25<\/em><\/li>\n
  8. Ross Murdoch<\/strong>, GBR, 2:08.32<\/li>\n
  9. Kirill Prigoda<\/strong>, RUS, 2:08.32<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"200-breast-men\"

    Photo Courtesy:<\/p><\/div>\n