Yuki Honda rewrote swim king Kosuke Kitajima's Japanese record in the men's 50-meter breaststroke heats at the National Swimming Championships on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Honda clocked 27.50 seconds at Hamamatsu Swimming Center, shaving 0.15 second off the mark previously owned by Kitajima, the two-time Olympic 100- and 200-meter breaststroke gold medalist.
"Both myself and Kitajima-san come from Tokyo's Arakawa Ward and our homes are really close by. I'm happy to break the record of someone I respect," said Honda.
In other races, Junya Koga came tantalizingly close to a world record for the second day in row as he set a new national mark of 24.59 in the men's 50-meter backstroke, just 0.26 seconds off the world mark American Randall Ball set in the Netherlands last year.