2020 Konami Open Day 2: Daiya Seto Puts Up Another 59.9 100 Breaststroke

2020 KONAMI OPEN

• Saturday, February 15th & Sunday, February 16th
• Tatsumi International Swimming Centre, Tokyo, Japan
• LCM
• SwimSwam Preview #1/Preview #2
• Start Lists
• Day 1 Recap
• Results

The 2020 Konami Open concluded without any World Records or Japanese Records being broken, which means the enormous cash prizes revealed in our meet previews did not come to fruition.

With this meet, the 3rd of the annual trio of ‘K’ meets along with the Kosuke Kitajima Cup and Kirara Cup, sitting just two months away from Olympic Trials, the lack of entirely eye-popping performances wasn’t totally unexpected.

However, day 2 still brought us some standout swims from the usual suspects along the lines of Yui Ohashi, Daiya Seto and more to wrap up action at the Tatsumi International Swimming Centre.

Following up on his shining 200m free performance from day 1, where he became Japan’s 7th fastest performer all-time in that ‘off’ event, Daiya Seto powered his way to 100m breast gold here tonight. Denying Shoma Sato the 100m/200m breast double, 25-year-old Seto fired off the 2nd fastest time of his career, stopping the clock at a mighty 59.93 to top the podium.

Seto has only been under the 1:00 mark one other time in this event, represented by the 59.79 he posted at the 2019 Japan Open. Last year Seto split 28.18/31.61, while his 59.93 outing tonight was composed of 27.90/32.03.

19-year-old Sato settled for silver in 1:00.32, tied with Hayato Watanabe.

Olympic champion in the 400m IM, Kosuke Hagino, landed off the podium in that event last night but was rendered the silver medalist in the shorter version this evening. Hagino clocked a time of 1:59.23 to finish slightly behind winner Ippei Miyamoto, who finished in 1:59.11.

Opting out of the women’s 200m IM was Yui Ohashi, instead focusing on the 200m fly tonight. She won the event within a trio of 2:08 performances, topping the podium in 2:08.27, while Suzuka Hasegawa and Hakino Makino produced times of 2:08.48 and 2:08.66 for respective silver and bronze.

30-year-old Ryosuke Irie kept his 100m back momentum going into the 200m distance tonight. Irie hit the wall in 1:56.27 to keep the field at bay, showing his top form once again. He owns the fastest mark in the world this season, having put up a time of 1:55.55 at the Kitajima Cup last month.

The women’s 100m breast saw Reona Aoki post her fastest time of the season, with an outing of 1:06.68 produced for the win. Splitting 31.21/35.47, Aoki took the gold by over 1 1/2 seconds.  Her time also hacks .30 off of the 1:06.98 result she logged at the Kitajima Cup, with tonight’s performance checking her in as now the 4th fastest performer in the world this season.

Aoki owns a lifetime best of 1:05.90 from the 2018 Japan Swim, a time that fell just .02 shy of Japan’s national record of 1:05.88 Kanako Watanabe put on the books back in 2014.

Tomoru Honda was the fastest 200m flyer for the men, sans Seto in the field. Honda hit the wall in 1:56.19, defeating runner-up Daiki Tanaka‘s time of 1:57.24 by over a second. Honda was the World Junior Championships silver medalist in this event last year, hitting a time of 1:55.31 to fall just .29 shy of American Luca Urlando’s gold there in Budapest.

Honda’s consistent swimming puts his name into the conversation of possible 200m fly Olympic qualifiers behind shoo-in Seto. The silver medalist from the event in Rio, Masato Sakai, has shown signs of life, however, including a 1:55.48 from January’s Kosuke Kitajima Cup, which ranks him 6th in the world this season.

Additional Winners:

• The women’s 100m free saw Rio Shirai post the only sub-55 second time of the field, with the versatile ace clocking 54.93.
• Yesterday’s 50m free winner for the men, Shinri Shioura, pulled out of day 2 here due to illness. Instead, Masuhiro Kawane scored the 100m free victory tonight 49.24.
• Yuya Tanaka reaped a new meet record in the men’s 50m fly, knocking .26 off of the old record to touch in 23.50. Takeshi Kawamoto was also under the previous standard, touching in 23.73.
• Kawamoto would go on to take 50m back gold as well, finishing in 25.42.
• Naito Ehara got it done for gold in the men’s 400m free, collecting a time of 3:49.50 as the only sub-3:50 swimmer.
• The women’s 200m IM saw Makino get the fastest mark in 2:13.23 to close out the meet.