World Championships, Day Four Finals: Daiya Seto Shows Versatility With Title in 200 Breaststroke; Just Misses WR

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

World Championships, Day Four Finals: Daiya Seto Shows Versatility With Title in 200 Breaststroke; Just Misses WR

The career of Daiya Seto has been defined by versatility, with the Japanese star long ranking as one of the world’s elite performers in the individual medley events and 200 butterfly. Additionally, he has been one of the globe’s finest in the 200 breaststroke, and it is in that event in which Seto earned his most-recent title in international competition.

Producing the second-fastest time in history, Seto pulled away over the second half of the race and captured the gold medal at the World Short Course Championships in 2:00.35. That showing fell just shy of the world record of 2:00.16, which has stood to Russia’s Kirill Prigoda since 2018. Seto was followed for the silver medal by Nic Fink, who established an American record of 2:01.60, while the bronze medal was won by Qin Haiyang in 2:02.22.

Complete Results

For his career, Seto now owns titles from the World Short Course Champs in four events – 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 200 medley and 400 medley. That type of portfolio speaks to the range of the 28-year-old. Seto’s performance also improved on his silver medal from the 200 fly from the previous night of action.

In third place at the 50-meter mark, Seto moved into the lead position by 100 meters and never relinquished his edge. At the midway point, Seto posted a split of 58.44, with a 1:29.42 his marker at the 150-meter checkpoint. Down the last 50 meters, Seto turned in a split of 30.93, which was the fastest in the field.

Seto will carry momentum into the 400 medley, where he’ll chase a fifth consecutive world championship in the short-course pool.

“I was very surprised with my time,” Seto said. “My main event (400 individual medley) is tomorrow and i hope to win again. This event is my new event (for international focus). I like breaststroke and i will be racing it long course next year.”

Fink’s silver medal followed his earlier victory in the 100 breaststroke, and with the 50 breast to come, Fink is looking to take home hardware from all three of the breaststroke disciplines.

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