Japan made history on Thursday winning three medals in one day at the World Swimming Champion-ships, including a gold that came with a world record from Kosuke Kitajima in the men's 200m breaststroke.
"This is a historic day for Japanese swimming," said team manager Tsuyoshi Aoki.
The Japanese team, through five of eight days of swimming, has two golds, one silver and two bronze.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In the emotion, Kitajima's coach Norimasa Hirai whipped up dozens of Japanese reporters to begin the victory chant of "Banzai! Banzai!" after the race.
Besides Kitajima's gold, Japan also took bronze in the 200m butterfly from Yuko Nakanishi and bronze in the 50m backstroke with Noriko Inada.
But Kitajima was the hero.
This was his second gold of the championships and his second world record to boot.
"I'm really happy to break two world records and win two golds. That was my goal," said the 21-year-old from Tokyo. "I knew I could win as soon as I stepped onto the starting block."
On Monday, Kitajima smashed the world record for the men's 100m breaststroke, hitting 59.78 seconds to break the previous record of 59.94 held by Russia's Roman Sloudnov.
He then warned: "I'm hoping to get a record of 2 minutes, 8 seconds." in the 200m.
On Thursday he clocked 2:09.42 seconds. He had held the record earlier this year until Dmitri Komornikov of Russia broke it with 2:09.52 on June 14 -- also in Barcelona.
"When Korminikov did that it really motivated me," said Kitajima. "I want to improve further to win the next Olympics in both events. Next year is the real contest."
Japan has a history of producing fine breaststroke swimmers, principally because it is a discipline which relies heavily on technique rather than stature and physique, analysts say.
It last won an Olympic men's swim gold in the 1972 Olympics with Nobutaka Taguchi. It won a women's gold in the 200m breaststroke in 1992, also in Barcelona, with Kyoko Iwasaki.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in