Japan’s Shoon Mitsunaga set a new Asian Games record in the men’s 50m butterfly preliminaries on September 24 at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. He won his heat in 23.19 seconds, becoming the fastest qualifier for the final.
Mitsunaga’s time was 0.10 seconds faster than the previous Asian Games record of 23.29 seconds, set by South Korea’s Baek In-chul at the Hangzhou Games in 2023. His swim also placed him ahead of Bahrain’s Mikhail Arkhangelskiy, the Asian record holder in the event.
Arkhangelskiy qualified second after recording 23.23 seconds. China’s Xu Fang finished third in the preliminary rankings with 23.43 seconds.
Mitsunaga entered the 50m butterfly after winning the men’s 100m butterfly gold medal on September 23. He recorded 50.56 seconds in the final, setting a Japanese national record and breaking the previous Asian Games record of 51.04 seconds held by Singapore’s Joseph Schooling.
The 50m butterfly final will bring Mitsunaga and Arkhangelskiy together again, with the two swimmers separated by just 0.04 seconds in the preliminaries. Arkhangelskiy holds the Asian record at 22.91 seconds.
Mitsunaga is also scheduled to compete in the men’s 4x100m medley relay for Japan at the Games. The 20-year-old swimmer represents Chuo University and is competing at his first Asian Games.
