I think that was a good thing, as it helped me conserve energy and I really didn’t have to do the breaststroke for resting as I’d anticipated.

The other was at the race start, when I realized I was one of the few without a wetsuit and the only one doing the entire 1.9km swim (1.2 miles) with a breaststroke.

Without a coach and enough knowledge about how to take care of yourself, I got injured and started to swim (breaststroke) to keep fit.

After a fourth-place finish Monday in the men's 100 meter breaststroke finals at the World Aquatics Championships now under way in Shanghai, Mr. Kitajima was philosophical.

You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next he was doing a breaststroke in a fire bucket 300 feet in the air.