■Paris Olympics™ Swimming: Women’s 200m breaststroke semi-final (August 1st, Japan time, La Défense Arena)

Satomi Suzuki (33, MIKIHOUSE), who competed in the women’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals in group 2, placed 4th with a time of 2 minutes 23.54 seconds and 8th overall, and advanced to the finals. She is aiming for her first medal in three Olympics since London 2012.

Suzuki took the first 100m with a relaxed swim and reached the middle of the race. Then, in the last 50m, he turned in fourth place. With 25m to go, he was overtaken by the fifth-place swimmer, but he managed to muster all his strength and finish in fourth place.

After the race, Suzuki said with a look of relief, “I’m finally able to make it to the finals, and to be honest, I didn’t think I’d make it in the 200m, so I was really happy when it showed up on the scoreboard.” Looking ahead to his first finals appearance in 12 years, he said enthusiastically, “I’m really happy, and I’m just going to concentrate on my own swimming.”

Suzuki appeared in the third qualifying group on July 31st, and placed third with a time of 2 minutes 23.80 seconds. With the fifth fastest time overall, he advanced to the semi-finals, which were made up of the top 16 swimmers. He lost in the semi-finals of the 100m breaststroke, where he set a personal best at the national team selection tournament in March this year. He placed fourth overall in the qualifying round, but finished 12th in the semi-finals, and said, “There’s still the 200m to go, so I’ll do my best to focus on that.”

Suzuki won three medals at the London Olympics. She was eliminated in the semifinals at the Rio Olympics and was dropped from the national team for the Tokyo Olympics. However, she improved her personal best in the 100m breaststroke at last year’s World Championships for the first time in 14 years, and in October she broke her own Japanese record in the 50m breaststroke. Then, at the national team selection tournament in March of this year, she won the 100m and 200m breaststroke, earning her third Olympic berth in two tournaments.

Two Japanese swimmers competed in the women’s 200m butterfly semifinals. Airi Mitsui (20) and Hiroko Makino (24) placed 6th and 7th, respectively, and finished 11th and 13th overall, respectively, and did not advance to the finals. Shuichi Takehara (20), who competed in the men’s 200m backstroke semifinals, placed 8th in his first group, and also did not advance to the finals.