Ippei Watanabe Looks To Answer ISL Breaststrokers At Home | SwimSwam

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

3rd JAPAN ADULT SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, November 7th & Sunday, November 8th
• Wakayama, Akibasan Park Prefectural Swimming Pool, Japan
• LCM (50m)
• Entries

While a big chunk of Japan’s upper echelon of the swimming elite are taking part in season 2 of the International Swimming League (ISL) on the Tokyo Frog Kings, a segment of notable swimmers are about to get their own racing underway back at home.

The 3rd edition of the Japan Adult Swimming Championships is taking place this weekend in Wakayama, with the two-day affair allowing a domestic battle across both men’s and women’s events.

Olympic silver medalist Masato Sakai is among the entrants, as are Yuya Yajima, Takeharu Fujimori and Naito Ehara. Sprinter Katsuhiro Nakamura is also ready to race, with the Japanese national record holder due to join his London Roar teammates, if travel and quarantine time allows.

The marquis swimmer for the men at these domestic championships may indeed be former 200m breaststroke World Record holder Ippei Watanabe. The 23-year-old has seen the likes of Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich, Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and Germany’s Marco Koch get work done in the breaststroke in the ISL, so it will now be his turn to respond in the big pool this weekend.

For the women, Rika Omoto, Anna Konishi, Kanako Watanabe and Satomi Suzuki are set to race.

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