Leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee failed to make Japan's team for this summer's world swimming championships in Budapest, the Japan Swimming Federation revealed Saturday.
Ikee, who made a dramatic comeback to qualify for last summer's Tokyo Olympics after being diagnosed with the form of blood cancer in February 2019, took part in a national team qualifying meet at Tokyo's Tatsumi International Swimming Center through Saturday.
She failed there to meet the individual qualifying standards needed to compete at the June-to-July worlds to be held in Budapest, federation chairman Takayuki Umehara said.
Ikee won the women's 100-meter butterfly on Saturday despite swimming in an outside lane after qualifying eighth, but her 57.89 second finish was not fast enough for her to enter the race in Budapest.
It was a repeat of Friday's 100 freestyle victory that was not fast enough to make the worlds. But a day after leaving the pool sobbing, she smiled as she took her leave Saturday.
"My goal was not to cry today, whether I won or lost," Ikee said.
Although her times in both the 100-meter freestyle and 100 butterfly would have been good enough to compete in the worlds' women's 400-meter medley relay, the meet did not produce enough good qualifying times to send a team to the worlds.
The medley relay was the lone event in which Ikee swam in a final at the Olympics, when Japan finished eighth.
Ikee has, since the start of her comeback, said her primary target is the 2024 Paris Olympics and could still qualify through Japan's nationals in April to compete in September's Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China.
"I want to become more competitive through getting experience so any meet I can swim in is OK," she said.
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