Izumi Katou and Aya Terakawa win gold medals: 2011 Japan Open National Swimming Championships
Izumi Katou and Aya Terakawa displayed tremendous swims, conquering the gold medals in their events on last day of the 2011 Japan Open National Swimming Championships.
The championship is a trial basis for the local swimmers to confirm their spots in the Japanese Swimming team to compete at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, in July.
The session included the finals of the 50m freestyle, 50m back-stroke, 200m Individual Medley (IM), 100m butterfly and the 200m breast-stroke in the Women’s corner.
The session initiated with the 200m IM, where the 20-year-old Katou conquered the top of the podium for her magnificent swim of 2:12.99 minutes. She was followed by Emu Higuchi and Asami Kitagawa, who touched the wall for silver and bronze medal, by posting
a time of 2:13.53 and 2:14.88 minutes, respectively.
Moments later, 26-year-old Terakawa presented a remarkable swim in the 50m back-stroke in front of the arena, occupying gold medal in a time of 27.97 seconds. Terakawa was followed by Shiho Sakai, who clinched the silver medal with a timing of 28.52 seconds.
The 21-year-old Miyuki Takemura settled on the podium for the bronze medal, producing a time of 28.53 seconds.
Next was the 50m freestyle final, where Yayoi Matsumoto emerged as the fastest swimmer and claimed the gold medal, posting a time of 25.51 seconds. Miki Uchida and An Yumoto sustained their qualification spots by earning the silver and bronze medal in a
time of 25.67 and 25.82 seconds, respectively.
After few moments, the arena witnessed impressive struggle of the top four swimmers, trying to escape each other for the podium finish. 24-year-old Yuka Katou dominated the event and clinched the gold medal with her 58.89 seconds effort. With the help of
her fastest kicks, Katou out-touched her following swimmer, Rino Hosoda, who followed her on the podium for the silver medal in 59.00 seconds. Tomoyo Fukuda stepped the podium for the bronze medal, by completing her swim in 59.42 seconds.
The final event of the session was 200m breast-stroke, where the 14-year-old Kanako Watanabe improved the junior national record, in a gold winning time of 2:23.90 minutes. She was followed by Keiko Fukudome and Naoko Fukudome, who followed her on the podium
for the second and third position, with timings of 2:25.39 and 2:26.53 minutes, respectively.
The championship concluded in the Women’s category and the whole arena applauded for the incredible swims of their national swimmers.
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