By Michael Church, OCA Media
Tokyo, Japan, September 24, 2026: Japan’s Shin Ohashi will go into the men’s 200 metres breaststroke final with the fastest qualifying time as the 17-year-old looks to claim his second gold of the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 at Tokyo Aquatic Centre on Thursday.
Ohashi will look to add the 200 title to the 100 metre crown he claimed on Monday after winning his heat in 2 minutes 09.92 seconds to qualify 0.95 seconds ahead of former world record holder Ippei Watanabe, also from Japan, with Kyrgyzstan’s Denis Petrashov third.
“Considering that I was swimming on my own, being able to do a 2:09 was really good, but in terms of how the swim felt, I still don't think I've fully mastered the 200 breaststroke,” said Ohashi.
“I don't feel like I'm really swimming the 200 the way I want to yet, and that's what worries me.”
Japanese swimmers impressed in the heats of the breaststroke with Kotomi Kato setting the fastest time in the women’s 200 metres in 2 minutes 25.92 seconds, 0.65 seconds ahead of Korea’s Park Sie-un and almost a further second clear of compatriot Satomi Suzuki.
Wu Qingfeng from China will start in lane four in the women’s 50 metres freestyle having qualified fastest in 24.33 seconds, 0.37 seconds in front of Hong Kong China’s Siobhan Haughey, who will be looking to add to her gold medal haul from the 100 and 200 freestyle.
Shoon Mitsunaga, winner of the men’s 100 metres butterfly on Wednesday, set the fastest heat time in the 50 metres event, registering a new Asian Games record of 23.19 seconds. That time was 0.03 seconds faster than Mikhail Arkhangelskiy, the Asian record holder.
“The goal was to qualify for the final without losing too much energy, so I did the job and now I focus on some sleep and then on the final,” said Bahrain’s Arkhangelskiy.
“The afternoon is something else, it’s another story and we’ll focus on it this afternoon. The most important is to win. I will have a good opponent so we will see how it goes.”
Vietnam’s Nguyen Huy Hoang set the time to beat in the men’s 800 metres freestyle with 7 minutes 57.39 seconds ahead of the A final, which will see China’s Zhang Zhanshuo attempt to secure his third individual gold medal after winning the 200 and 1500 events.
Japan qualified fastest in the final of the women’s 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay ahead of China and Korea while the Chinese were quickest in the heats of the men’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay, outqualifying Japan and Kazakhstan.