2026 JAPANESE SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
The men from Japan have been on fire over the past year, with the likes of Shin Ohashi busting out a World Record in the 200m breaststroke and Yumeki Kojima crushing new World Junior Records in the IM events.
Tonight at the 2026 Japanese Short Course Championships, it was 17-year-old Yusei Imaizumi who stole the spotlight, delivering a new World Junior Record in the 100m breaststroke.
Racing in the final of the short course meters event, the teen ripped a monster lifetime best of 55.82 to take the gold, getting under the 56-second barrier for the first time in his young career.
Entering this competition, Imaizumi’s PB and former World Junior Record sat at the 56.35 he notched just last month. That previous benchmark took down Ohashi’s old WJR of 56.65, meaning this particular event’s WJR has dropped nearly a second since March of this year.
Ohashi was indeed in this race as a follow-up to his historic 2:04.83 LCM 200 breast World Record put on the books at the Asian Games. Tonight the 17-year-old settled for bronze in 56.47, while Taku Taniguchi hit 56.26 as the silver medalist.
Comparing Imaizumi’s new record against his old, the teen was .23 faster on the way out and managed to hold on and hit a back half of 29.51 compared to his former swim’s 29.81 final 50m.
His time of 55.82 would have garnered Imaizumi a 4th-place finish in the event at the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
Imaizumi is a two-time Junior Pan Pacific Championships individual gold medalist, having won both the 100m breast (59.98) and 50m breast (27.55) in Canada this summer.
