{"id":399772,"date":"2019-10-27T03:17:22","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T10:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=399772"},"modified":"2019-10-27T04:38:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T11:38:21","slug":"yasuhiro-koseki-kosuke-hagino-deliver-world-ranks-toppers-at-tokyo-s-c-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/yasuhiro-koseki-kosuke-hagino-deliver-world-ranks-toppers-at-tokyo-s-c-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Yasuhiro Koseki & Kosuke Hagino Deliver World Ranks Toppers At Tokyo S\/C Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yasuhiro Koseki,<\/strong>\u00a0Kosuke Hagino in fine form as\u00a0Japan S\/C Nationals Conclude<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yasuhiro Koseki <\/strong>and Kosuke Hagino<\/strong>, two of Japan’s great hopes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games<\/strong>, sped to the helm of the season World Rankings with dominant efforts on the second and concluding day of Japanese short-course Championships in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Japanese 200m breaststroke finals always shake the rankings tree. The national record of 2:01.30 – which stands to … Seto, much to the chagrin of specialists – survived, but Koseki raced into the all-time top 10 at No9 with a 2:01.78<\/strong> (27.62, 58.74, 1:30.22) victory.<\/p>\n

Two others raced inside the ISL winning time in Budapest<\/a>, too: Kazuki Kohinata<\/strong> and former world long-course record holder Ippei Watanabe<\/strong> matched each other in 2:04.16 after a stroke-for-stroke fight that Watanabe led by a fraction all the way until the end wall. There were two other 2:05s, too, the top 5 in a domestic race all inside the scope of international line-ups at the League and all the more so on the struggling World Cup tour.<\/p>\n

A day after his domestic friend and rival Daiya Seto<\/strong> rattled the 400m medley world record<\/a>, Hagino took the 200m medley crown in 1:52.89 (24.35, 51.98, 1:24.87). Closest to him were\u00a0Ippei Miyamoto,<\/strong>\u00a01:55.79, and\u00a0Yuki Ikari,<\/strong> on 1:55.82.<\/p>\n

The race marked the first best effort on a career list for Hagino tipped by a 1:51.27 back in 2014. Set owns the Japanese record at 1:51.09, one of three efforts inside 1:52 and 14 efforts inside 1:53.<\/p>\n

Yui Ohashi<\/strong> gave her own national record a scare with a 2:05.84 victory over 200m medley. The time is second-fastest in the world so far this short-course season behind Melanie Margalis<\/strong> and her American record 2:04.18<\/a> at the inaugural round of the ISL.<\/p>\n

Ohashi’s national record has stood at 2:05.29 since the Tokyo round of the World Cup last year. Today, she swam her career second-best through splits of 27.59, 59.19 and 1:35.82. The silver went to Sakiko Shimizu<\/strong> on
\n2:08.50.<\/p>\n

There was a brace of personal-best victories for Rio Shirai<\/strong> as the meet came to a close: the 20-year-old took the 100m free in 52.87 and the 100m back in 56.00.<\/p>\n

Reona Aoki<\/strong> claimed both breaststroke titles in the day, first with a national record and maiden sub-30sec effort in the 50m on 29.97 before taking the 200m in 2:19.24.<\/p>\n

There were few events at the two-day meet in Tokyo that did not shuffle the world rankings. Other national titles on Day 2 included:<\/em><\/p>\n