Seto Ends Mare Nostrum Series With Another Meet Record in the 400 IM

2015 MARE NOSTRUM SERIES

• Canet-en-Roussillon, France – June 6-7
• Barcelona, Spain – June 10-11
• Monaco – June 13-14
• Mare Nostrum website
• SwimSwam’s full coverage
• Start lists
• Monaco website
• Results will be posted here

The final evening of the 2015 Mare Nostrum series in Monaco kicked off with Daiya Seto breaking his second competition record of the weekend posting a 4:10.58 to win the men’s 400 IM. Hungarian David Verraszto pushed Seto throughout the race, but could not stick with the Japanese star in the final 100 meters collecting the silver in a time of 4:11.28.

Seto broke his own meet record of 4:13.09 which he set in 2013.

Seto’s Japanese teammate Kosuke Hagino took the bronze in a time of 4:13.05, 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

The men’s 100 butterfly record was the next to fall as South African Chad le Clos led the race from start to finish winning the event in a time of 51.66. le Clos’ time ties him with Jayden Hadler of Australia for the fifth spot in the world rankings.

le Clos surpassed the meet record of 52.04 which was set by Andrew Lauterstein in 2009.

American Ryan Lochte and Takuro Fuji of Japan had a fierce battle for the silver. Lochte eventually grabbed the piece of hardware hitting the wall in a time of 52.64, five one-hundredths of a second ahead of Fuji who touched in a time of 52.69.

Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan took down the 100 breaststroke meet record of 1:00.24 set by Alexander Dale Oen in 2011 posting a winning time of 59.93.

Koseki was the only competitor to dip under the one minute mark. He was followed by Germans Christian Vom Lehn who finished second in a time of 1:00.89 and Hendrik Feldwehr who touched the wall in  a time of 1:00.94.

The battle for the gold in the women’s 200 IM was an exciting one between Kanako Watanabe and Katinka Hosszu. Hosszu dominated the first half of the race turning over two seconds ahead of Watanabe after the backstroke. Watanabe than used her breaststroke prowess to take a 31 one-hundredths of a second in lead heading into the freestyle. Hosszu outswam Watanabe in the final 50 meters, but did not have enough to catch her finishing two one-hundredths of a second behind Watanabe.

• Watanabe – 29.52/103.86 (34.34)/1:39.92 (36.06)/2:09.95 (30.03)
• Hosszu – 28.77/1:01.48 (32.71)/1:40.23 (38.75)/2:09.97 (29.74)

Hosszu set a new competition record in the prelims posting a qualifying time of 2:10.02 beating her own record of 2:10.46 which she set in  2013. With her winning time Watanabe set a new meet mark.

German Alexandra Wenk finished third in a time of 2:13.39.

Hosszu also took the women’s 400 freestyle earlier in the event recording a time of 4:08.47. Chihiro Igarashi of Japan finished second in a time of 4:09.18 followed by Antonia Massone of Germany who hit the wall in a time of 4:15.78.

Ryosuke Irie of Japan dominated the men’s 200 backstroke winning the event by over two and a half seconds. Irie posted a winning time of 1:55.36. He was followed by Japanese teammate Masaki Kaneko who recorded a time of 1:58.18 and German Christian Diener who finished in a time of 1:58.32.

Mie Nielsen of Denmark was the only woman to dip under the one minute mark in the women’s 100 backstroke finishing in a winning time of 59.51. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finished second in a time of 1:00.87 followed by American Kathleen Baker who recorded a time of 1:00.92.

Nielsen’s Danish teammate Rikke Moller Pedersen took the women’s 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:22.53. She was followed by Watanabe who posted a 2:23.86 and Canadian Kierra Smith who touched in a time of 2:25.67.

German Paul Biedermann took the men’s 200 freestyle with relative ease recording a winning time of 1:46.72. South African Myles Brown collected the silver in a time of 1:48.45 followed by Lochte who finished in a time of 1:49.17.

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace of the Bahamas took the women’s 100 freestyle in a time of 53.97. She was followed by Charlotte Bonnet of France who finished in a time of 54.12 and Miki Uchida of Japan who touched in a time of 54.21.

Natsumi Hoshi of Japan won the women’s 200 butterfly in a time of 2:08.25 followed by Japanese teammate Sakiko Shimizu who recorded a 2:11.03. Emma Smithurst of Great Britain finished third in a time of 2:12.95.

The sprint events all went through prelims, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals where two swimmers raced head to head. The results are as follows:

Women’s 50 butterfly

1. Jeanette Ottesen – 25.61
2. Rikako Ikee – 26.29

Men’s 50 butterfly

1. Takeshi Kawamoto – 23.57
2. Matthew Josa – 23.98

Women’s 50 backstroke

1. Kirsty Coventry – 28.08
2. Kathleen Baker – 28.26

Men’s 50 backstroke

1. Jeremy Stravius – 24.89
2. Carl Louis Schwarz – 24.98

Men’s 50 breaststroke

1. Hendrik Feldwehr – 27.43 – beats Damir Dugonjic‘s meet record of 27.49 set in 2013
2. Caba Siladji – 27.45
3. Yasuhiro Koseki – 27.65

*Siladji and Koseki tied in the semi-final with a time of 27.96

Women’s 50 freestyle

1. Pernille Blume – 24.86
2. Dorothea Brandt – 25.02

Men’s 50 freestyle

1. Katsumi Nakamura – 21.90
2. Andrey Grechin – 22.47