2021 FINA SHORT COURSE SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
- Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- SCM (25m)
- Prize Money
- Meet Site
- Psych Sheet
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- FINA Live Results
- Omega Live Results
Japan’s Daiya Seto made history on day 5 of these 20201 FINA Short Course Swimming World Championships.
The 27-year-old took the men’s 400m IM title in a time of 3:56.26, becoming just the 2nd man in history to earn gold in the same event a total of 5 times across this biannual competition. The Olympic medalist has raced his way to the top of the 4IM podium spanning 2012 to 2021.
Seto’s victory rendered the man tied with Great Britain’s James Hickman who collected 5 world titles in the men’s 200m fly from 1997 to 2004.
Seto also won the men’s 200m IM here in Abu Dhabi and placed 4th in the 100m IM, just .06 outside of bronze.
Japan did not send an official contingency to these Championships due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and overall concerns. Seto, a professional athlete who is not financially supported by the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF), chose to race here on his own after coming down from altitude training under American coach Coley Stickels.
Amazing consistency over 9 years. I don’t know what happened to Seto in Tokyo but its a shame as he has been exceptional the last few years.
Hickman was great at 2Fly SC and had exceptional turns for his era. Hickman did 5 wins in 7 years instead of 8 because FINA changed the schedule in 1999 so there was another worlds in 2000 to start the schedule as it is now.
He was doing altitude training like right before Tokyo, and got better at the end of the meet, so it seems like he screwed up his taper.
Seto benefitted from his recent altitude training in AZ