2024 Japanese SC Championships – Men: Seto Takes IM Double Over Olympic Medalist Matsushita

2024 JAPANESE SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, October 19th & Sunday, October 20th
• Tokyo Aquatics Centre
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results

The 2024 Japanese Short Course Championships wrapped up over the weekend with the competition representing the primary qualification opportunity for December’s Short Course World Championships.

Although heavy hitters such as world record holder Tomoru Honda opted out of the meet, there were plenty of key athletes who made their presence known over the course of the 2-day affair.

Publicly stating that a record 7th consecutive Short Course World Championships 400m IM title is in his sights, 30-year-old Daiya Seto wreaked havoc in both his events this weekend.

In the 200m IM, Seto punched a time of 1:51.91 to get to the wall first, defeating Kosuke Makino and So Ogata who settled for the minor medals.

Makino earned silver in a mark of 1:52.12 while Ogata bagged bronze in 1:52.69.

As for Seto, the 2016 Olympic medalist owns a lifetime best of 1:50.66, a time he produced during the 2021 World Cup series. That ranks him the 2nd-best Japanese performer in history, sitting only behind national record holder Kosuke Hagino (1:50.47, 2014).

Just for a point of reference, Seto’s 1:51.91 would have rendered him off the podium at this weekend’s first stop of the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Shanghai, China.

In the 400m IM, Seto put up a stronger effort of 3:59.79 to score the sole time of the pack under the 4:00 barrier.

As he reached the wall, Seto beat 19-year-old Tomoyuki Matsushita, the reigning Olympic silver medalist in the LCM version of the 400 IM. Matsushita secured silver in 4:00.44 and Kaito Tabuchi rounded out the podium a hair behind in 4:00.61.

Seto is the World Record holder in this event with a PB of 3:54.81 from the 2019 International Swimming League (ISL) final. In fact, the father of two owns the top 16 fastest-ever performances thrown down by a Japanese male in this race.

Seto’s outing would have beaten the 4:00.03 Frenchman Leon Marchand logged for the 400m IM victory in Shanghai. Look for them to be two of the top contenders this December in Budapest.

Additional Men’s Notes

• Tatsuya Murasa continued his streak of impressive performances as of late, establishing a new Japanese High School Record in the men’s 200m free. Murasa touched in a time of 1:42.14 for gold, denying Katsuhiro Matsumoto first place. Matsumoto was well behind in 1:43.63 as the runner-up and Takumi Mori earned bronze in 1:43.68. Last month, Murasa threw down a new High School Record of 48.87 in the LCM 100 freestyle.
• Kaiya Seki was oh-so-close to the men’s national record in the 50m back, clocking a time of 22.85. That fell just .04 outside of Junya Koga‘s Japanese standard of 22.81 put on the books in 2016.
• The men’s 50 breast national record was also at risk, with winner Taku Taniguchi coming within .11. Taniguchi hit 26.02 for a new lifetime best and the gold medal. Taniguchi also logged the victory in the 100m breast, producing a gold medal-worthy result of 56.27.
• Yamato Fukasawa turned in a time of 2:02.97 to win the men’s 200m breast, holding off Ippei Watanabe by just under a second. Watanabe settled for silver in 2:03.71 while Kosuke Makino collected bronze in 2:03.88.
• Sans Honda in the men’s 200m fly, it was Olympic teammate Genki Terakado who topped the podium. Terakado put up a mark of 1:50.53, a big-time personal best. He’s now Japan’s 7th-swiftest performer in history in this event.