Mitch Larkin on top of the world in Tokyo
Swimming Australia, October 30, 2015: Australia’s Mitch Larkin swam faster than he did to win the World Championship crown in Kazan in August, when he won gold in a new Australian and Commonwealth record in the men’s 200m backstroke at the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup at Tokyo’s Tatsumi International Swimming Centre last night.
Larkin clocked 1:53.34 to take 0.24 of a second off the previous records set in Russia, to again take the top ranked time in the world for 2015 and edge his way closer to the (textile suit) world mark of 1:51.92, set by Aaron Peirsol in 2009.
The 22-year-old Queenslander opened up a commanding lead after the first lap, splitting 26.59, increasing his lead at the half-way mark in 55.54 and swimming away from Olympic silver medallist, Japan’s Ryosuke Irie (1:56.00) to win comfortably.
Japan’s Masaki Kaneko (1:58.65) was third.
Larkin had won the 100m backstroke in 52.48 on day one and also added silver in the 50m backstroke last night in a personal best time of 24.62 behind American David Plummer (24.58).
"Like I said last night, I didn't quite expect that time," said Larkin, who had beaten his expectations by about 0.5 in the 100m.
"For me, today the question really was about endurance. I swam my way through the first 100 pretty comfortably and tried to keep my legs fresh.
"This morning, (the 50m heat) was a bit average, I didn't handle the start and I was a bit flat.
"Tonight, I was really happy with (my 50)….a non-Olympic event so I don't really focus on it too much, but it's obviously important having a bit of speed for the 100."
As for the Olympics? Larkin says: “I'll make sure the boxes are ticked and keep doing what I'm doing, but it's a different challenge at the Olympics."
The Dolphins picked up two more gold last night with Emily Seebohm and Chris Wright taking top spot in their respective events.
Seebohm backed up from an impressive first night to blitz the field in the women’s 100m backstroke in a time of 58.37. The time is just off her World Championship winning time from Kazan (53.26) and the Australian Record she set in London 2012 (53.23).
She was too strong for the “Iron Lady” Katinka Hosszu (HUN) who had to settle for second place in 1:00.01 with Japan’s Miyuki Takemura in third with 1:01.15. Fellow Australian Belinda Hocking was fourth overall in 1:01.23.
Seebohm made it a hat-trick of golds with the Seebohm-Larkin combination taking their backstroke medal tally to five golds and a silver from their six events and Seebohm taking her personal World Cup gold medal tally to an impressive 11 from six meets.
"I couldn't let Mitch outdo me, I have a thing about beating boys!," said Seebohm.
Wright’s gold came in the men’s 100m butterfly with the Gold Coaster stopping the clock at 52.77 to get the better of Japan’s Takeshi Kawamoto (52.82) and the USA’s Tom Shields (52.83).
Breaststroker Jake Packard picked up the pace last night to take silver in the men’s 100m breaststroke in 1:00.92.
The gold medal went to Cameron Van Der Burgh in 59.97 with Yoshiki Yamanaka third in 1:01.29.
There was a trio of bronze medals with Leiston Pickett, Leah Neale and Jessica Hobbin all on the podium in their respective races.
Pickett touched third in a strong field of the women’s 50m breaststroke in 30.88, behind Molly Hannis in 30.63 and Alia Atkinson 30.79. Fellow Australian Jessica Hansen was sixth in 31.80.
Neale collected her bronze in the women’s 400m freestyle with a 4.11.12 to finish just behind Katinka Hosszu (4:08.87) and Chihiro Igarashi (4:10.65).
While Hobbin impressed in the women’s 50m butterfly getting her hand on the wall for third place with a 26.83 behind Rikako Ikee (26.17) and Miki Uchida (26.23).
Other results saw Melanie Wright fourth in women’s 100m freestyle in 54.63, Travis Mahoney fifth in the men’s 200m IM in 2:02.14, Blake Jones fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle in 22.74, Taylor McKeown fifth in the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2:25.93 and Alex Graham eighth in men’s 200m freestyle.
A number of the swimmers will now move onto Doha and then Dubai for the finals legs of the FINA World Cup Tour.
For full results go to www.omegatiming.com
FINA WORLD CUP MEETS
· Tokyo October 28,29
· Doha November 2,3
· Dubai November 6,7
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