Japan schoolboy Ohashi shrugs off COVID to smash 200m breaststroke world record

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 24 - Little more than a week after coming down with COVID-19, 17-year-old schoolboy Shin Ohashi lit up the Asian Games pool with a breaststroke world record that left Japan wondering whether a successor to Kosuke Kitajima had emerged.

Ohashi stormed to his second gold of the Games with a time of 2:04.83 in the 200m event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, smashing the previous record (2:05.48) set by China's Qin Haiyang at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka.

Big things were expected of Ohashi at this meet, having won five medals at last year's world junior championships.

Falling ill in the leadup was not ideal but he said being forced to take some rest may have helped him.

"Regarding COVID, after all, there was a part where it created a little anxiety for me mentally," said Ohashi, who shared the 100m breaststroke gold with China's Dong Zhihao three days ago, with Qin taking bronze.

"But, conversely, physically it was very -- well, in a sense, I think it was good that I was able to properly rest my body as a period of recovery."

Olympic champion Leon Marchand, who visited the Games pool this week, described Ohashi as a "scary" prospect ahead of the Frenchman's defence of his 200m breaststroke title at Los Angeles 2028.

NATURAL MUSCLE

His coach Shin Ota said he was a great learner, even if like many high school boys, he was often glued to his phone.

"He has this kind of absent-minded appearance, and looks as though he's not thinking about anything, but, yeah, he really loves swimming and he's incredibly enthusiastic about studying it," said Ota, admitting the world record was a surprise to him.

"I've answered this in various interviews, but I have this sense that I hardly teach him anything.

"But, as you can see, he's got a lot of muscle, but it's not as though he's doing weight training. It's natural muscle, so I think that's another part of what's remarkable about him."

Japan has a proud history in the breaststroke, and counts Kitajima as one of the nation's swimming greats.

Kitajima claimed back-to-back 100 and 200m breaststroke gold medals at the 2004-08 Olympics, the only swimmer to achieve that "double-double".

Ohashi's coach said it was early days for Ohashi but he could see him following Kitajima onto an Olympic podium.

"While gaining those experiences one by one and getting accustomed to them, I think he'll surely be able to win a medal at the Olympics as well," said Ota.

"And for him to become like Kitajima, he'll also need to grow as a person." REUTERS