Miyu Ohtsuka and Yuka Katou dominate Women’s finals: 2011 Japan Open National Swimming Championships
Miyu Ohtsuka and Yuka Katou astonished the crowd by sustaining their fastest qualification spots and pocketing gold medals in their respective events on day two of the 2011 Japan Open National Swimming Championships.
The session included the finals of the Women’s 400m Individual Medley (IM), 50m breast-stroke, 50m butterfly, 200m back-stroke and the 200m butterfly.
The first event of the session was 400m IM, where the fastest qualifying swimmer Ohtsuka earned the crowd’s respect by clinching the gold medal in 4:38.05 minutes. Her timing was almost three seconds away from Miho Takahashi, who settled on the podium for the silver medal, with timing of 4:41.50 minutes. They were followed by Izumi Kato, who touched the wall for bronze medal in a time of 4:42.16 minutes.
In the 50m butterfly final, Yuka Katou displayed an impressive swim in front of the arena by seizing the gold medal of the event, with timing of 26.34 seconds. Katou’s wonderful swimming placed her 0.54 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, Rino Hosoda, who appeared on the podium for silver medal, clocking 26.88 seconds. Hosoda out-touched her following swimmer, Misaki Agou by 0.27 seconds. Agou touched the wall for bronze medal, posting a time of 27.15 seconds.
Next was the 50m breast-stroke, where Kanako Watanabe improved the junior national record in a gold winning time of 31.83 seconds. Mina Matsushima and Kana Sugisaki followed her on the finishing wall, by producing a time of 32.02 and 32.21 seconds respectively.
Moments later, Maiko Fujino won the hearts of crowd by dominating the 400m freestyle. Fujino touched the wall first for the gold medal in a time of 4:13.02 minutes and out-touched her following swimmer, Aya Takano by 0.49 seconds. Takano won the silver medal in 4:13.51 minutes. Risa Sekine emerged on the podium for the bronze medal with a timing of 4:14.32 minutes.
The last event of the session was 200m back-stroke, where Shiho Sakai won the gold medal in 2:08.38 minutes and was followed by Sayaka Akase and Saki Shimazoe, who earned the silver and bronze medals in 2:09.38 and 2:11.44 minutes, respectively.
The championship will continue for one more day, where the winners clocking a time under FINA Time Qualification Standard will have the chance to represent their nation at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.
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