Teenage sensation Kosuke Hagino set a domestic record of five titles at the Japanese national swimming championships on Saturday.
The 18-year-old from Tochigi won the men’s 400-metre freestyle in 3:45.42 for his fourth title in the championships to equal the previous records, and then won the 200m individual medley in a new national mark of 1:55.74.
Previously, two other swimmers, Tomoko Hagiwara and Takeshi Matsuda have won four titles in the same national championships.
“I felt very good as I swam well in the first butterfly, so I just tried to swim firmly in the last freestyle,” said Hagino.
“I still have one more race to go. I’ll just concentrate on each race and try to do my best. I expect it to be a race against (world silver medallist) Ryosuke Irie. I’m determined to hang in there till the end,” he added.
Hagino and runner-up Daiya Seto qualified for the world championships in Barcelona in July.
London Olympic 100m bronze medallist Aya Terakawa also set a new national record of 27.51 to win the women’s 50m backstroke for a fourth straight time to secure a berth in the worlds.
“I got off to a very good start. I narrowly missed the national record yesterday and I was very disappointed, so I tried hard today. By improving my personal best, I will be able to prepare for the summer,” said Terakawa.
In other races, former world 100m champion Junya Koga won the men’s 50m backstroke in 25.12 beating Irie into second, while Olympic bronze medallist Natsumi Hoshi retained the women’s 200m butterfly in 2:06.12 for her fourth.
The first-time champions were Yuki Kobori in the men’s 200m butterfly, Kanako Watanabe in the women’s 200m individual medley and Asami Chida in the women’s 800m freestyle, while Haruka Ueda won the 100m freestyle for her sixth year running.
Hagino sets Japanese swimming record
