The story appears on

Page A15

April 11, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Swimming

Kitajima quits

TWO-TIME double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima announced his retirement from competitive swimming yesterday, two days after failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Bidding to qualify for his fifth Olympics, the 33-year-old finished fifth in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke at the national championships on Friday after barely missing out in the 100 earlier in the week.

“I knew the end was going to come sooner or later,” Kitajima said. “I had to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to the Olympics.”

Kitajima hinted after Friday’s race that he would retire and confirmed his intentions at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday.

Arguably Japan’s best swimmer, he won gold medals in the men’s 100 and 200 meters breaststroke at both the Athens and the Beijing Olympics.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend