Japan's Water Polo teams place third and miss Olympic target

Despite the hard-fought games, Japan's national women’s and men’s Water Polo teams lost their hope to go to the London Olympic Games this summer. Both teams took third at the Asian Water Polo Championships taking place at the Shin-Narashino International Swimming Center in Chiba-ken (JPN) from January 24-27, an event that served as Continental Water Polo Qualification Tournament for London.

China, first among women and Kazakhstan, triumphant among men, both get to compete at the Olympic Games Qualification Tournaments in Trieste (ITA) and Edmonton (CAN) respectively, to be held in April.

In swimming, Aya Terakawa, Haruka Ueda and Takeshi Matsuda showed talent at the Tokyo Swimming Championships held at the Tokyo-Tatsumi International swimming Center in Tokyo, Japan from January 28-29, 2012.

Aya Terakawa clocked 2:08.01 in the women’s 200m backstroke, Haruka Ueda broke the national record in the women’s 100m freestyle in a swift 54.33, Takeshi Matsuda swam very well in the men’s 200m butterfly, touching the wall at 1:55.12.
Additionally, Akihiro Yamaguchi, a 16-year-old hopeful breaststroker, swam very smoothly in the men’s 200m breaststroke, clocking 2:10.82.
Japan's rising star Ryosuke Irie performed well in the men’s 100m and 200m backstroke at the West Australia Swimming Championships held in Perth, Australia, from January 21-22, 2012. His times for the 100m (in the 4x100m medley relay) and 200m backstroke were 53.32 and 1:54.02 respectively.
In the meantime, California-based Kosuke Kitajima continues his training.