Daiya Seto and Katsuhiro Matsumoto Double At Japan Short Course Championships
Unlike the first day of competition, when Tomoru Honda wowed the crowd, there were no world records at the Japan Short Course Championships. Still, there were several impressive performances as the meet came to an end. Leading the way was veteran Daiya Seto, who claimed a pair of gold medals in the 200-meter individual medley and the 200 breaststroke.
Coming off an opening-night win in the 400 medley, Seto opened Night Two by topping Honda in an enticing matchup in the 200 IM. Ahead by more than a second entering the freestyle leg, Seto fended off a late charge by Honda to prevail in 1:51.83, with Honda touching the wall in 1:51.97. Seto returned to the pool to cap the session with a victory in the 200 breaststroke, as he once again held off a late flurry. This time, Seto posted a mark of 2:01.63 to beat Ippei Watanabe, who posted a swim of 2:01.70.
Seto wasn’t the only athlete to manage a double. Katsuhiro Matsumoto showed the short and long of his talent by grabbing titles in the 100 freestyle and 400 freestyle. Matsumoto started his night with a clocking of 46.85 in the 100 free and backed up that triumph with a swim of 3:40.05 in the 400 free. Matsumoto was followed by Shogo Takeda in the longer event, as Takeda was just behind in 3:40.21.
In other action, Reona Aoki was the victor in the women’s 50 breaststroke, thanks to a time of 29.59, and veteran Ryosuke Irie bested the field in the 100 backstroke, going 49.69. In the women’s 200 medley, reigning Olympic champion Yui Ohashi grabbed gold in 2:07.09, slightly faster than the 2:07.25 of rising star Mio Narita. Yuya Tanaka wasn’t far off the Japanese record in the 100 butterfly as his 49.72 mark fell just shy of the national record of 49.54.