Daiya Seto Sets First League World Record Among Men
International Swimming League Final,
Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas
The first five races of the first Final Match in International Swimming League Pro-Team history saw Cali Condors‘ aces soar to a High Five in five.
Then came the first Japanese and Asian man to enter League waters. The debut of Daiya Seto was full of spark for Energy: World record, 3:54.81, smoke off the water, Ryan Lochte‘s 3:55.50 nine-year-old standard sunk at last, the first sub-3:55 in the pantheon.
Seto did not clip the Condor’s wings for long (though Energy would indeed finish a touch ahead on points at half-time in this two-day season showdown of a match): Caeleb Dressel made it two League World records for the men: a dominant 20.24 in the 50m freestyle not only shaved 0.02sec off the previous standard but beat the previous holder, too, Energy’s Florent Manaudou, the 2012 Olympic champion who claimed silver in 2016, home in time to see the fist-pump of the new fastest sprinter in history.
Daiya Seto ploughs towards the world record over 400m medley at the ISL final in Las Vegas – Photo Courtesy: Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse
Seto’s sizzler marked the first World record in league waters for a man, Minna Atherton having made history as the first woman to achieve that accolade when she cracked the 200m backstroke mark in Budapest last month.
Daiya Seto, the double World champion over 200m and 400m medley in Gwangju, Korea, this year, had given warning last month when he swam an Asian record of 3:55.53 at Japanese nationals. 0.03sec shy. Now 0.69 inside.
Lochte’s record was good for the world title back in 2010 and included a killer last 100m freestyle. Seto was between 2-3secs up on Lochte’s pace throughout the first three strokes, felt the heat and pain on freestyle but had done enough:
- 52.35; 1:51.40; 2:57.90; 3:54.81 (29.07, 27.84 = 56.91) Seto WR 2019
- 54.62; 1:53.73; 3:01.14; 3:55.50 (27.69, 26.67 = 54.36) Lochte WR 2010
World record progression – the March below 4mins
- 4:00.37 László Cseh HUN 9 December 2005 Trieste, Italy
- 3:59.33 László Cseh HUN 14 December 2007 Debrecen, Hungary
- 3:57.27 László Cseh HUN 11 December 2009 Istanbul, Turkey
- 3:55.50 Ryan Lochte USA 16 December 2010 Dubai, UAE
- 3:54.81 Daiya Seto JPN 20 December 2019 Las Vegas, USA
Lochte’s race pace reflected the relative strengths of those he was racing on the day, the closest man to him by the close of play the biggest danger to him on freestyle: Olympic 1500m champion and Olympic marathon champion-to-be, Ousama Melloui, while Tyler Clary was the third fighter for the crown. That race:
- 54.62; 1:53.73; 3:01.14; 3:55.50 Lochte
- 54.85; 1:54.75; 3:02.50; 3:57.40 Mellouli
- 54.43; 1:52.99; 3:01.68; 3:57.56 Clary
Today’s was a different race, with Britain teammates but rivals in the League, Duncan Scott and Max Litchfield, on 3:59.81 and 4:01.31.
The first Brit ever to break 4mins, Scott claimed the national record from Litchfield, on 4:00.18 last year. Scott is now the third man of the Commonwealth to dip below 4mins: Chad Le Clos, Energy, was first, back in 2012, on 3:59.23, while Australian Thomas Fraser-Holmes, locked out of the League because he received a suspension for missing three anti-doping tests in a 12-month period, clocked what remains the Commonwealth record, 3:57.91, in 2015.
Litchfield claimed the European short-course crown in Glasgow two weeks ago in a final that went without Scott, who withdrew after he clocked the second fastest time in the world this year in heats. Both Scott (4:01.20) and Litchfield (4:01.36) were faster today that they were in Glasgow.
Daiya Seto: The swim, The celebration
The Sub-4min 400 Medley Club is now 13 deep…
- 3:54.81 Seto, Daiya, JPN
- 3:55.50 Lochte, Ryan, USA
- 3:56.48 Hagino, Kosuke, JPN
- 3:57.27 Cseh, Laszlo, HUN
- 3:57.40 Mellouli, Oussama, TUN
- 3:57.56 Clary, Tyler, USA
- 3:57.91 Fraser-Holmes, Thomas, AUS
- 3:59.23 Le Clos, Chad, RSA
- 3:59.32 Noda, Hyuuma, JPN
- 3:59.47 Bernek, Peter, HUN
- 3:59.81 Scott, Duncan, GBR
- 3:59.90 Dwyer, Conor, USA
- 3:59.99 Wang, Shun, CHN
Swimming World’s Pacific Rim Male Swimmer of the Year, Seto has more success in his treasury than the recognition he’s received so far. In Tokyo next year, Olympic gold would take him from household name to eternal hero of a host nation.
