2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Top seed Daiya Seto was knocked out of the final of the men’s 400 IM on the first Day 1 of prelims at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He went a 4:10.59, which placed him just outside of the top 8.
- Brendon Smith (AUS), 4:09.27
- Lewis Clareburt (NZL), 4:09.49
- Chase Kalisz (USA), 4:09.65
- David Verraszto (HUN), 4:09.80
- Alberto Razzetti (ITA) / Jay Litherland (USA), 4:09.91
- –
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:10.09
- Max Litchfield (GBR), 4:10.20
Seto was the 2019 World Champion in the 200 and 400 IM. He swam today’s race similarly to his gold-medal performance in Gwangju, holding a comfortable lead until the 300 mark, when the other swimmers raced to catch him. France’s Leon Marchand and USA’s Jay Litherland made their moves early on the in freestyle, but it was ultimately Brendon Smith of Australia who got his hand on the wall first.
Seto fell to fifth in the heat and missed the final by 0.39 seconds.
He was the only swimmer in the field to be entered in a sub-4:09. His entry time of 4:07.95 was from the 2019 Settecolli Trophy. There, he won gold in the event, blowing away the rest of the competition to post the top time in the world for 2019.
He was also ranked as the top swimmer in the world in 2020. Last January, the Japanese swimmer threw down a time of 4:06.09 at the Kosuke Kitjima Cup. No other swimmer came close to topping him time for the remainder of the year. Ilia Borodin was ranked second in the world, after having gone a 4:11.50 at the Russian National Championships.
Seto is seeded second in the 200 IM behind Michael Andrew.
Unless someone beats Ledecky in the 800 this is probably going to be the biggest upset of the olympics. Hopefully seto can bounce back from missing the final in his pet event at a home olympics
What do you mean? In ‘08 Phelps broke the Olympic record in the heats in a 4:07 and took the top seed by like 2 seconds.
screwing my pickems on the first event <<<
So I guess it’s back to screaming for Litherland to win
Man sucks to see him miss the final. Is his form just not there at the moment or he misjudged the time it would take to make the final? He did look slow on the last 100 though with four swimmers overtaking him.
He played with his pacing and paid the price in the last 50
*cries* my pick em bracket is already busted….
Don’t worry everyone else’s is too.
Leon Marchand of France, and incoming freshman at ASU, is the youngest swimmer at 19 years of age the youngest swimmer to make the final!
1.08.9 I think on the breastroke split this morning what a stud!
Wasn’t Seto’s plan to train at altitude until just a couple of days ago? A very risky strategy as it can backfire and leave you feeling a bit flat if you get the timing wrong. This is the first big shock from the swimming and it didn’t take long arriving. For whatever reason, the favourite is out, and it’s wide open now.
It could be. I can’t watch prelims but looking at the splits he died bad on the freestyle relative to what we would have expected.
I am gutted as he is one of my favourite swimmers. Can’t beleive he went 4.06.09 last year
He really tightened up at the end. Gutted for him.