Japanese Olympic Trials: Day 2 Recap
3 swimmers punched their ticket to Paris today.
Men's 400m IM:
1. Tomoyuki Matsushita - 4:10.04 Q
2. Daiya Seto - 4:10.84
3. Kaito Tabuchi - 4:11.15
Big PB by Matsushita to become the first Japanese athlete to qualify for Paris. Other than that, a complete disaster for Japan. Tomoru Honda already shockingly failed to qualify for the final. Then Daiya Seto, arguably the biggest Japanese star, fails to qualify in his signature event despite getting under the OQT. Also getting under the OQT was Kaito Tabuchi. So a country that's known for their producing world class IMers will only nominate one athlete for this event. If this doesn't make the JASF change their selection criteria, I don't know what will.
Women's 100m Butterfly:
1. Mizuki Hirai - 56.91 Q
2. Rikako Ikee - 57.30 Q
3. Shiho Matsumoto - 57.31
4. Ai Soma - 57.64
4 women under the OQT and 3 women under the JASF QT. Another big PB by the 17 year old Hirai and Ikee barely qualifies in 2nd. Great race all around.
Men's 100m Breaststroke:
1. Taku Taniguchi - 59.43
2. Yu Hanaguruma - 59.47
2. Ippei Watanabe - 59.47
Once again, 3 men under the OQT but all failed to meet the JASF QT of 59.26 (see a pattern here?). Taniguchi should be nominated for the medley relay should the stroke 100 winners meet the required relay time but won't swim it individually.
Current Japanese Olympic team
Men:
Tomoyuki Matsushita - 400m IM
Women:
Mizuki Hirai - 100m Butterfly
Rikako Ikee - 100m Butterfly