Pan Pacific Championships: Asaki Nishikawa, Fan Yaqi Win Swim-Offs
The second morning of preliminaries at the Pan Pacific Championships included not one but two swim-offs, with Japan’s Asaki Nishikawa and Fan Yaqi of China securing A final spots.
Nishikawa broke a tie with countryman Yumeki Kojima for the second A final berth among Japanese swimmers in the men’s 400 individual medley, despite them finishing second and third in the overall standings.
Fan’s win was of a more traditional sort, edging New Zealand’s Chelsey Edwards for the eighth-fastest qualified time in the women’s 100 freestyle.
Nishikawa and Kojima matched with times of 4:08.69 in prelims. That took a toll, as the swim-off showed.
Nishikawa won the extra swim in 4:13.84, but both he and Kojima shut it down coming home with the race decided. Nishikawa, 19, took control early and held off what was expected to be a charge by the 17-year-old Kojima on breaststroke. When that didn’t materialize, the elastic broke and both saved up for finals, Kojima coasting home in 4:27.43 with a spot in the B final.
Nishikawa took it out hard. He was 2.48 seconds up at the midway point. Kojima didn’t close in breaststroke. In the morning prelims, Nishikawa had to rely on a final-50 charge to get his hand to the wall even.
Kojima entered with the slower seed time in 4:08.84 to Nishikawa’s 4:07.67. Nishikawa was fourth at the World Championships in this event last year. Kojima set the world junior record in the 400 IM in the summer of 2025, taking down Ilya Borodin’s mark. Thursday was the second time he’s lowered it.
Prelims was won by Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita in 4:07.61, with all three swimming in the same heat.
The 100 free was more straightforward. Fan and Edwards tied for 15th overall in 54.66. Once the A finalists were accounted for – two Americans, two Aussies, Canada’s Taylor Ruck, the Philippines’ Kayla Sanchez and Cheng Yujie of China – one spot remained.
The race was close again. Fan was up by .07 at the midway point, Edwards having split within .01 of where she was in the morning. The touch was too close to call, with Fan getting into the wall at 54.38 and Edwards at 54.47.
Both improved their seed times. Fan, 15, came in with a seed time of 55.00. Edwards was at 54.68.
