Shoma Sato<\/strong> became the fifth-fastest man in history over 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:07.02 on the final day of the Japan Student Swimming Championships.<\/p>\n

It rocketed the teenager from fifth to third in the all-time Japanese rankings behind former world-record holders Ippei Watanabe<\/strong> with a best of 2:06.67 and Akihiro Yamaguchi<\/strong> who swam 2:07.01 in 2012.<\/p>\n

World-record holder Anton Chupkov<\/strong> and Australian Matt Wilson<\/strong> – who had equalled Watanabe’s 2017 mark in the semis at the 2019 World Championships before the Russian set a new threshold of 2:06.12 en-route to a successful title defence – are the only other men to have gone faster than Sato.<\/p>\n

$\"sato_shoma2_0\"$
Photo Courtesy: FINA \/ Budapest 2019<\/p><\/div>\n
Sato – who won silver at last year\u2019s World Junior Championships behind Josh Matheny<\/strong> of the USA – started the meet with a best of 2:07.58 from the Kosuke Kitajima Cup in January.<\/a><\/p>\n
He had already done a PB of 59.55 over 100m and on Sunday was 0.47 under world-record pace at the 150 mark which puts into sharp focus Chupkov’s final-50 blast of 31.89 in Gwangju with Sato coming home in 33.26.<\/p>\n
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Splits:<\/em><\/p>\n
28.91\/1:01.14\/1:33.76\/2:07.02\u00a0 Shoma Sato, October 2020<\/p>\n
29.73\/1:02.22\/1:34.23\/2:06.12 Anton Chupkov, July 2019<\/p>\n
Link to results<\/a><\/p>\n
Sato’s thunderous performance came hours after Kirill Prigoda<\/strong> had gone 2:07.58<\/a>, leaving Chupkov in his slipstream, at the Russian Swimming Cup.<\/p>\n
Double Gold And A Meet Mark For Shirai<\/h3>\n $\"natsumi-nakai-\"$
Natsumi Sakai: Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n
Rio Shirai<\/strong> won the women’s 100 free in 54.76 before leading off the Toyo University 4×200 squad in 1:58.23 as they sliced 0.13 off the previous meet record in 8:01.15.<\/p>\n
Tomoru Honda<\/strong> – who had won the 200 fly in 1:55.76 on the opening day<\/a> – added the 400IM crown in 4:13.31.<\/p>\n
Mai Fukasawa<\/strong> won the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2:25.75 and\u00a0Juran Mizohata <\/strong>took\u00a0the men’s 100 free in 49.12 as the top six all came in under 50 seconds.<\/p>\n
Asian Games champion Natsumi Sakai\u00a0<\/strong>won the women’s 100 back in 1:00.27 with Riku Matsuyama<\/strong> taking the men’s in 54.66.<\/p>\n
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Double Gold And A Meet Mark For Shirai<\/h3>\nNatsumi Sakai: Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\nRio Shirai<\/strong> won the women’s 100 free in 54.76 before leading off the Toyo University 4×200 squad in 1:58.23 as they sliced 0.13 off the previous meet record in 8:01.15.<\/p>\n