Seeks Tokyo gold, and more

Fresh from setting a new world record, Japan's latest swim sensation Ippei Watanabe is plotting Tokyo Olympic glory in 2020 -- and he wants his gold medal sealed with a kiss.

The 19-year-old, who shot to fame with a jaw-dropping time of 2 minutes 06.67 seconds in the men's 200 metres breaststroke last month, plans to set another world best in the Olympic final and celebrate by sweeping some lucky damsel off her feet with a dashing wedding proposal.

"I'm blessed that I'll be at my peak as a swimmer when the Tokyo Olympics arrive," Watanabe told AFP in an interview.

"My aim is to win the final in a world record and then propose to someone with my gold medal," he added, coyly declining to elaborate on who might be the object of his desire.

"There's only three years to go and I'm determined not to waste the opportunity to make the Tokyo Olympics the crowning glory of my career."

Behind Watanabe's hopes for a slushy Hollywood ending, burns a competitive fire to emulate boyhood idol Kosuke Kitajima, who won 100m and 200m breaststroke gold at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

"When I was 10 I buried a time capsule," said the Waseda University student, who broke the world mark in Tokyo watched by the Japan swimming great.

"I put in a message with my dreams written on it: saying I wanted to be like Kosuke Kitajima and swim at the Olympics."

Having eclipsed a world best once owned by Kitajima and competing in Rio last summer, Watanabe has gone some way to reaching those goals.

But the record-breaker, who finished sixth in the Olympic final, is hungry to prove his wonder swim was no fluke.

- 'Marked man' -

"I'll be a marked man at this year's world championships," nodded the 1.93-metre (6ft 3in) Watanabe, looking ahead to the July 14-30 global championships in Budapest, where the spectre of Kazakhstan's Olympic champion Dmitriy Balandin is set to loom large.

"People used to think I was weak under pressure. But if I can lower the world record again and win the gold medal, I'll be able to call myself the real world number one."

Watanabe revealed that the pain of coming up short in Rio fuelled his surprise world record.

"I was gutted after that Olympic final," he said. "I just wanted to crawl into bed. But if I hadn't suffered like that I don't think I would have set the world record. I knew I would break it at some point, just not so quickly."

A voracious student of the sport, Watanabe studies video of Kitajima's races to pick up tips.

But as he continues his rise to the top, there is a cautionary tale for Watanabe in the form of fellow Japanese Akihiro Yamaguchi, who broke the 200m breaststroke world record in 2012 before fading into obscurity.

"It has a nice ring to it to be called 'world record holder' but I don't want to break the record once," insisted Watanabe. "I want to keep breaking it so I have to keep working.

"Kitajima always found a way to win," he added. "Now my dream is to win Olympic gold like him. I guess I'll have to bury another time capsule."

Source: AFP