World Championships, Day Five Prelims: Daiya Seto Leads 400 IM Prelims in Pursuit of Sixth Consecutive Title

Daiya Seto of Japan celebrates after winning the gold medal in the 200m Breaststroke Men Final during the FINA Swimming Short Course World Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Melbourne, Australia, December 16th, 2022. Photo Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Daiya Seto -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet

World Championships, Day Five Prelims: Daiya Seto Leads 400 IM Prelims in Pursuit of Sixth Consecutive Title

One of the signature races of day five of the Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, is the men’s 400 individual medley. Long course world champion Leon Marchand is not competing this week, but the headline swimmer is a man who has achieved unprecedented success in the short course 400 IM. Japan’s Daiya Seto is the five-time defending champion in the event, a streak going back to 2012, and he will aim to become the first swimmer to win six consecutive world titles in one event, long course or short course.

Seto qualified first for the final ahead of long course Worlds silver medalist Carson Foster while Italy led the way in a tight field in the men’s 200 medley relay prelims. Meanwhile, the Italian men topped the 200 medley relay before Noe Ponti topped the field in the 100 butterfly and Nicolo Martinenghi finished first in the 50 breaststroke.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

Italy has become an unexpected power in men’s relays over the past year. After a pair of gold medals at the Short Course World Championships in December 2021, Italy won the 400 medley relay at the long course World Championships this year, and already this week, Italy has gold and a world record in the 400 free relay. Now, the Italians will go into the 200 medley relay final with the top qualifying time after Lorenzo Mora, Simone Cerasuolo, Thomas Ceccon and Alessandro Miressi swam a mark of 1:32.31 in the morning.

France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Antoine Viquerat, Maxime Grousset and Florent Manaudou were just behind in 1:23.53, and third went to Germany’s Marek Ulrich, Lucas Matzerath, Marius Kusch and Josha Salchow in 1:32.56. In fourth and fifth, respectively, were Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, Yuya Hinomoto, Takeshi Kawamoto and Kosuke Matsui (1:32.65) and the United States’ Hunter Armstrong, Nic Fink, Trenton Julian and Kieran Smith (1:32.67).

The Americans will surely add Ryan Murphy, already the gold medalist in the 50 and 100 back, to their squad in finals, along with possibly Shaine Casas and Michael Andrew. The Netherlands, Australia and China also qualified for the final.

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Men’s 400 IM

No swimmer has won six consecutive world titles in one event, either short course or long course, but 28-year-old Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto will be in line to do so in the men’s 400 IM. Seto has won gold in the event in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021, and he qualified first in Saturday’s prelims in a time of 4:00.35, leaving him just over a second in front of American Carson Foster (4:01.34).

Foster will surely pose a huge challenge to Seto after winning silver in the 400 IM at the long course edition of the World Championships, and he had the fastest split on the U.S. men’s world-record-setting effort in the 800 free relay Friday evening. Seto, however, won gold in the 200 breaststroke Friday while coming up just short of the world record, so he should have a big advantage on that leg.

South Africa’s Matt Sates, who won gold in the 200 IM ahead of silver medalist Foster on the first day of the meet, qualified third in 4:02.18, while Foster’s older brother Jake Foster placed fourth in 4:02.64. Australia’s David Schlicht, Japan’s So Ogata, Italy’s Alberto Razzetti and Slovakia’s Richard Nagy also qualified for the final.

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Men’s 100 Butterfly

Switzerland’s Noe Ponti was the only swimmer to get under 49 in the men’s 100 fly heats. Ponti, the Olympic bronze medalist in the event in 2021, swam a time of 48.81 that was actually faster than last year’s winning time in the final of the event. The swimmer who won gold in 2021, Italy’s Matteo Rivolta, qualified second in 49.43, and five other swimmers broke 50: Egypt’s Youssef Ramadan (49.64), Canada’s Ilya Kharun (49.66), Australia’s Matt Temple (49.85), South Africa’s Chad le Clos (49.88) and Germany’s Marius Kusch (49.89).

Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin was the final qualifier for the semifinals with a time of 50.64. No swimmers from the United States advanced. Michael Andrew finished 30th in 51.93, more than a second outside of the semifinals, while Shaine Casas scratched the race.

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Men’s 50 Breaststroke

Within the past year, Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi has twice been on the wrong end of a tight finish in the 50 breaststroke. He was the silver medalist at last year’s Short Course Worlds behind Nic Fink, finishing just two hundredths behind the American, and then he ended up just three hundredths behind Fink at the long course edition of the World Championships in June. But in the prelims in Melbourne, Martinenghi posted the top qualifying time at 25.71, three tenths ahead of the field.

Adam Peaty, the British breaststroke star competing at Short Course Worlds for the first time since 2014, took second in 26.01, while Fink, already the gold medalist in the 100 breast and silver medalist in the 200 breast, finished fourth in 26.07, splitting Chinese swimmers Yan Zibei (26.06) and Qin Haiyang (26.13). The next finishers were Japan’s Yuya Hinomoto (26.15), Italy’s Simone Cerasuolo (26.16) and the USA’s Michael Andrew (26.17), and world-record holder Huseyin Sakci of Turkey placed ninth in 26.26.

There was a tie for 16th place between Japan’s Masaki Niiyama and Finland’s Olli Kokko, with both swimmers touching in 26.51. They will race again in a swimoff to determine the final qualifying position for the semifinals. Kokko won the swimoff with a time of 26.24 ahead of Niiyama’s 26.50.

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