Kosuke Kitajima sets 100m breast-stroke record in Japan Short Course Nationals
Four times Olympic gold medalist, Kosuke Kitajima has just set the new Japan National record for 100m breast-stroke on his arrival to his home country. Kitajima was training with many top class swimmers at the University of Southern California under Dave
Salo’s supervision.
The Olympic champion has won gold medals in the 100m and 200m breast-stroke at 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 28-year-old Japanese touched the wall in 57.34 to beat the previous record holder Yuta Suenaga. The previous record holder
stood second with a timing of 57.67 instead of his previous mark of 57.35 followed by Naoya Tomita in the third place with a timing of 58.36.
The former world record holder for the 100m breaststroke and the 200m breast-stroke gave a disappointing performance in 2010 Asian games. He finished fourth in 50m breaststroke and 100m breast-stroke and discarded his participation in the 200m breast-stroke
event.
To improve his performance Kitajima trained under Dr. Dave Salo’s guidance at university of South California, where he won swimming’s senior meet last month. He easily claimed the titles for the 100m breast-stroke and the 200m breast-stroke and announced
his participation in the Japan’s nationals with the aim of selection for 2011 Shanghai World Championships.
The record breaking phase of this championship was not restricted to Kitajima’s event only. Three other national records were also lowered by other swimmers in the final events. Daiya Seto with his astonishing performance won the title of the 400m individual
medley in a record breaking time of 4:04.28. The previous mark was also made by Seto, as he defeated Kosuke Ogino and Sho Uchida to claim his title
Like Seto, Ryosuke Irie also lowered his own mark of the 200m back-stroke in a time of 1:49.78, finishing ahead of Kazuki Watanabe and Yuki Shirai in the race.
Shiho Sakai won two gold medals on the first day of the championships in the 50m backstroke and the 200m backstroke in 26.81 and 2:02.15 respectively.
Moreover, Hanae Ito won her favourite event, the 200m freestyle in 1:56.59 and Junya Koga won the 50m backstroke in 23.58.
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