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Japan’s Daiya Seto Earns Olympic Qualification At The 11th Hour

2024 JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS

Day six of the 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials saw 29-year-old Daiya Seto come up big.

The 2016 Olympic medalist fired off a time of 1:56.87 to take the men’s 200m IM and qualify for the Paris Games at the 11th hour.

The 2IM represented Seto’s final chance at Olympic selection, having come up short in his earlier events of the 400m IM and 200m fly.

His sub-1:57 outing checked in as a season-best, overtaking the 1:57.54 from placing 4th at last month’s World Championships. He owns a lifetime best of 1:55.55, a result turned in at the 2020 FINA Champions Series.

The silver medalist in the 200m IM tonight, So Ogata, fell painstakingly shy of the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF)-mandated qualification time of 1:57.51. He notched an effort of 1:57.52 to come within .01 of what he needed to join Seto on the roster.

Seto’s performance tonight raises his world ranking to #4, as he slides ahead of American Carson Foster’s (1:56.97) time from the World Championships last month.

Japanese Individual Olympic Qualifiers Through Day 7 of Trials

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Ugg
7 months ago

Wow, only one swimmer has been able to qualify for the Olympics in multiple events through the qualifying standard so far.

I only mention this cuz the JASF will definitely have some of their stars swim multiple individual events despite them not going under the qualifying standard at Trials.

The unoriginal Tim
7 months ago

Will they let him swim yhe 4IM. Crazy if not.

BOB
Reply to  The unoriginal Tim
7 months ago

Leaning yes, but he technically shouldn’t.

If the JASF is so adamant about swimmers swimming faster than the qualifying standard, then Seto shouldn’t swim because he fell short of the qualifying time.

If the JASF is gonna do this sort of thing, they should at least be upfront about it when they announce the qualifying standards at the start of every finals session.

Hank
Reply to  BOB
7 months ago

Do they have to swim under the qualifying standard in the final specifically, or in heats or semis OK? If Seto has the 4IM QT within the last year, is he good to swim it at OLYs?

Ugg
Reply to  Hank
7 months ago

Finals specifically.

Rebecca N
Reply to  The unoriginal Tim
7 months ago

An interesting fact is Ippei Watanabe did not even qualify semi final in 100 m breaststroke during the trial in 2016. He placed 19th in the prelim, however he competed in the event in Rio although he did not qualify semi there either.

Kitajima made the cut in the semi final, but placed second in the final without making the cut which led him to his retirement that day.

This year, Taniguchi, the first place swimmer in this event did not make the cut this year, but Hanaguruma and Watanabe tied for the second. My guess is those two would be given a chance compete in 100.

Missing the cut by .01 for this swimmer in 2IM…I… Read more »

Hank
Reply to  Rebecca N
7 months ago

Is .01 is within the margin of error of the timing systems?

Facts
Reply to  The unoriginal Tim
7 months ago

That 4 IM QT is absurd. It was based on the historically fast 400 IM prelims that occurred at night. It is very unlikely a prelims session for the 400 IM will be that fast this year. For reference Marchand qualified second at prelims in the past world champs with a 4:10 high but that time wouldn’t qualify for the Tokyo Olympic finals

Hank
7 months ago

Tough result for So Ogata. You wonder how many Japanese swimmers like him could have dropped more time for the Olympics and ended up with a lane in an Olympic final or on a podium.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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