Japan Swim 2010 - Day 3

Ryo Tateishi caused one of the biggest upsets of 2010 this year by winning the 200m Breast in a blazing time of 2:09.21. Yuuta Suenaga pushed Tateishi all the way before ending up second in 2:09.57. Tateishi moves to the top of the world rankings this year, downing Brenton Rickard's 2:09.31 set at last month's Aussie Trials. Suenaga moves into third on the list. Naoya Tomita took third in 2:11.37.

The one name that is missing is that of Double-double Olympic Champion, Kosuke Kitajima. Kitajima led the race at 50m and 100m before falling off in a big way. Kitajima's endurance has been questioned throughout 2010 but this race shows that he's clearly lacking fitness for the 200m. The greatest breaststroker of all time could only manage a 36.23 split on his final 50m.

Tateishi, who had a breakthrough year in 2009, is showing that he's not too far off his techsuit best times. His best last year was 2:08.25, good enough for 6th in the world in 2009.

Splits of the race:-

TATEISHI - 29.39 - 1:02.67 (33.28) - 1:35.92 (33.25) - 2:09.21 (33.29)
SUENAGA - 29.46 - 1:02.44 (32.98) - 1:35.89 (33.45) - 2:09.57 (33.68)
TOMITA - 29.49 - 1:02.75 (33.26) - 1:36.90 (34.15) - 2:11.37 (34.47)
KITAJIMA - 29.25 - 1:02.41 (33.16) - 1:36.30 (33.89) - 2:12.53 (36.23)


Other impressive performances:-

World champion Junya Koga held off the challenge of Ryosuke Irie to win the 100m Back in a time of 53.49. Irie took second in 53.61. (In the semi-finals Irie qualified fastest for the final in a time of 53.35 which would have been good enough for the win tonight.) Irie remains fourth in the world rankings, Koga fifth.

Aya Terakawa won the women's 100m Back in a time of 59.72, the only woman in the final to dip below 60 seconds. Terakawa becomes only the fourth woman in 2010 to break the minute barrier and now sits behind Emily Seebohm (59.21), Lizzie Simmonds (59.43) and Gemma Spofforth (59.46) in the world rankings.

Suzuki Satomi (2:24.27) and Rie Kanetou (2:24.57) produced the third and fourth fastest times in the world this year in the women's 200m Breast.

Takurou Fujii now lies second in the world this year on the 100m Fly after winning here in a time of 51.99. Andrew Lauterstein heads the world rankings with a time of 51.79.


(Missed off in yesterday's report) - Masayuki Kishida broke the Japanese record in the final of the 50m Free in a time of 22.11. Kishida's time puts him equal fifth in the world this year with Amaury Leveaux's fourth place finish at French Nationals last night.