Yuuya Horihata and Masafumi Yamaguchi rule day three of Men’s preliminary rounds - 2011 Japan Open
Yuuya Horihata and Masafumi Yamaguchi demonstrated their aggressive swimming skills to dominate the preliminary rounds on day three of the 2011 Japan Open National Swimming Championships.
The championship also provides a platform to national swimmers to prove their qualification into the Japanese Swimming Team for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July.
The session concluded after the Men’s preliminary rounds in the events of 200m Individual medley (IM), 50m freestyle, 50m back-stroke, 100m butterfly and the 200m breast-stroke.
The meeting started with the 200m IM, where the 20-year-old Horihata occupied the fastest qualification spot into the finals, with his tremendous effort of 2:00.84 minutes. His commendable effort placed him almost three seconds away from the Japanese record
of 1:57.24 minutes, while he was almost one second ahead of his following swimmer, Yuuma Kosaka. Kosaka and Daiya Seto followed him into the finals, by touching the wall for second and third fastest spots in a time of 2:01.61 and 2:01.69 minutes, respectively.
In the 50m back-stroke, Yamaguchi stunned the arena with his praiseworthy swim of 25.54 seconds. He was only 1.30 seconds behind the national record but out-touched his following swimmer, Yamato Ujibayashi by 0.18 seconds. They were followed by Motoaki Miyami,
who secured the third fastest qualification spot, posting a time of 25.90 seconds.
Moments later, Kenta Ito cruised his way into the finals as the fastest swimmer, by touching the wall first in a time of 22.63 seconds. Ryosuke Taira and Yuuki Kawachi followed him into the final rounds by claiming the second and third fastest spots, with
timings of 22.96 and 23.01 seconds, respectively.
After a few minutes, 25-year-old Takura Fuji earned the crowd’s respect by finishing his swim in a fastest time of 53.15 seconds. He was followed by Kouhei Kawamoto, who emerged as the second fastest qualifying swimmer by touching the wall in a time of 53.31
seconds. Takeshi Matsuda followed them into the finals, posting 53.42 seconds.
The last event of the session was the 200m breast-stroke, where the 21-year-old Ryo Tateishi defeated the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ champion, Kosuke Kitajima. Tateishi clocked a time of 2:12.64 minutes to overwhelm Kitajima’s 2:12.88 minutes effort. They were
followed by Akihiro Yamaguchi, who appeared as the third fastest swimmer in a time of 2:13.03 minutes.
The finals of the same events will take place in the evening session, where these swimmers will battle each other for the podium finish.
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