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World Championships Medalist Daiya Seto Misses 400 IM Olympic QT

2024 JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS

It was a shocker of a day for the men’s 400m IM at the Japanese Olympic Trials.

First, medal favorite Tomoru Honda missed out on making the final entirely. During this morning’s heats, 22-year-old Honda clocked a time of 4:16.97. That was well off the 4:09.98 personal best he put on the books last December to render him 10th and out of the top 8.

Then, during tonight’s final, 13-time world champion Daiya Seto missed hitting the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF)-mandated qualification time of 4:10.63 needed for Paris.

18-year-old Tomoyuki Matsushita upstaged Seto this evening. Carrying a final 100m free of 56.71, Matsushita got to the wall first in 4:10.04, a new lifetime best. Seto touched nearly a second later in 4:10.84, a result .19 shy of the QT.

Seto has proven on multiple occasions he is more than capable of producing the QT. He owns a lifetime best of 4:06.09 from 2020 and possesses  6 of the top 10 Japanese performances of all time.

At last year’s JPN World Championships Trials, Seto put up a 4:07.92 scorcher. He then hit a result of 4:09.41 to reap bronze in Fukuoka.

Seto still has an Olympic qualification opportunity in the men’s 200m IM, an event in which is ranks 9th in the world with a season-best 1:57.54, a time already within .03 of the 1:57.51 QT.

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Rebecca N
8 months ago

Having the trials so early, it does not seem Japan Swimming Federation does not want to think of training for four months to give the athletes who barely missed the cut.

go team go
8 months ago

i’ll never forget watching him fade during the tokyo prelims. if covid didn’t happen i think he would’ve been an olympic champion

Facts
Reply to  go team go
8 months ago

He would’ve had the meet that Marchand is prob gonna have this year

Mr Piano
Reply to  Facts
8 months ago

Relative to medal decoration yeah but not in times.

Austinpoolboy
8 months ago

Is there a B standard? So if he gets an A standard in 200IM he cam also still swim 400IM? Like they do at NCAAs?

Retta Race
Reply to  Austinpoolboy
8 months ago

It’s possible that the JASF will add 4IM to Seto’s lineup if he qualifies for 2IM.

Ugg
Reply to  Retta Race
8 months ago

I hope not. That would just defeat the purpose of having a strict qualifying time standard that the JASF sets in place. If they’re gonna do that, they should just lower the qualifying standard. I was furious when the JASF registered Ikee for individual events at last year’s World Champs despite Ikee only qualifying for relay events. In the end, it didn’t do Ikee any good. She didn’t final in any individual events and underperformed on the relays.

Sun Yangs Hammer
8 months ago

The lights were brighter than expected

Last edited 8 months ago by Sun Yangs Hammer
PFA
8 months ago

Yeah if this doesn’t change JASF idk what will

Facts
Reply to  PFA
8 months ago

Didn’t they shut out arguably their greatest swimmer of all time Kitajima in 2016 for clearing their cut in semifinals but not finals

Caveman
Reply to  Facts
8 months ago

Facts

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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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