Swimming

Narita Hits 4:36.03 400 IM, Honda Clocks 1:54.68 200 Fly At Kanagawa Tune-Up Meet

June 30, 2024

10TH SUMMER CHALLENGE MEET (JPN)

Saturday, June 29th & Sunday, June 30th
Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan
LCM (50m)
Day 1 Recap
Results

Several Japanese stars took on the 10th Summer Challenge Meet to sharpen and tune-up ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games beginning just about a month from now.

A handful of them repeated the events in which they raced yesterday, including 17-year-old Tatsuya Murasa who took on the 200m freestyle both days.

Yesterday the teen logged a winning result of 1:46.59 to establish a new lifetime best and Japanese National High School Record.

Tonight, Murasa was a half-second off that mark, putting up a still-impressive result of 1:47.09.

That got him to the wall ahead of national champion Katushiro Matsumoto who settled for silver in 1:48.41. Konosuke Yanagimoto also landed on the podium, registering 1:48.72 for bronze.

33-year-old Satomi Suzuki won the women’s 200m breast on day one in an outing of 2:25.30 and she repeated the event tonight.

The Olympic qualifier touched in 2:24.56 to speed up by just under a second, decisively taking the race as the only swimmer to delve under the 2:30 barrier. She took this event at the Japanese Olympic Trials in a time of 2:23.09.

Teen Mio Narita punched a head-turning time of 4:36.03 en route to topping the women’s 400m IM podium.

That got the edge over runner-up Waka Kobori who nabbed 4:38.56 while Ageha Tanigawa bagged bronze in 4:45.04.

Just 17 years of age, Narita represents Japan’s 3rd-swiftest women’s 400m IM performer in history. She clocked a time of 4:35.40 at Japan’s Olympic Trials so tonight’s outing fell just over half a second shy of the teen’s quickest of all time with Paris on the horizon.

Finally, in the men’s 200m fly, Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda improved upon his 1:55.72 from yesterday.

Tonight the 22-year-old scored a time of 1:54.68 to get the job done, splitting as follows: 25.29/28.66 (53.95)/29.71/31.02 (1:00.73).

After the race, Honda told Asian media, “I swam well up to 150 (meters). If I can get the last 50 meters in order, I think I’ll be able to compete in the real thing.

I’d like to run a time in the 1 minute 51 second range in the (Olympic) final and win the gold medal.” (Nikkan Sports)

Additional Notes

Genki Terakado sneaked into the wall ahead of Matsumoto in the men’s 100m fly, with the former touching in 51.66 to the latter’s 51.70.
The men’s 200m breast saw Yu Hanaguruma notch 2:09.76 as the gold medalist.

SwimSwam: Narita Hits 4:36.03 400 IM, Honda Clocks 1:54.68 200 Fly At Kanagawa Tune-Up Meet