78th NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL (JPN)
- Saturday, September 14th – Monday, September 16th
- Sunrise Park, Saga Prefecture, Japan
- Meet Central
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
30-year-old Olympian Daiya Seto was in the water this weekend, racing at the 78th Japanese National Sports Festival.
Seto took on the men’s 200m IM on day one of the three-day affair, winning the race in a time of 1:57.20. This performance was on the heels of the 2024 Games where the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist finished 7th in both the 200m IM and 400m IM.
Looking ahead, Seto has expressed his intention to continue his competitive swimming career, eyeing a 4th Olympic appearance at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Ahead of that milestone, however, Seto told Asian media he is hunting a remarkable 7th consecutive World Short Course Championships victory in the 400m IM.
Seto captured his 6th consecutive World Short Course Championships 400m IM gold at the 2022 edition in Melbourne Australia.
He is the reigning world record holder in the SCM edition of the 4IM, having clocked a massive 3:54.81 as a member of the Tokyo Frog Kings at the 2019 International Swimming League (ISL) final.
The 2024 World Short Course Championships are on the calendar for December 10th – December 15th in Budapest, Hungary.
At this point we don’t know who is expected to race in Budapest but possible rivals include Frenchman Leon Marchand, American Carson Foster, and South African Matt Sates.
Part of me wants Marchand to swim the World Short Course, but another part of me wants Seto to win his seventh consecutive gold medal.
Marchand resumed training today in Toulouse. He will go to all 3 World Cup stops as well as world short course in Budapest.
https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/amp/natation/natation-apres-les-jo-2024-et-son-ete-fou-leon-marchand-retourne-ce-lundi-a-l-entrainement_AV-202409150333.html
Seto can probably still throw down some nasty times SCM, will Marchand be able to match those times with his inexperience racing in this format?
Respectfully if Leon enters SCM meets Seto is getting cooked unless he’s way off form
Seto broke a quite well respected Lochte record, insane we can expect Marchand to absolutely smash that time
Seto is also shorter than marchand and has a lot more scm experience. The stroke count and turn timing is a huge part of why seto is so good in scm. He never has to crunch a turn. Still, wouldn’t be surprised if Leon swept the floor.
Exactly. Leon will be untouchable.
I would imagine a fit Marchand would obliterate the WR and beat Seto by quite a lengthy margin in SCM
I suspect he raced a bit of SCM as a European age grouper
Doubt it happens at this point but I would love to see Marchand pull up to SCM worlds. 200 breast/fly/im and 400 I’m are basically freebies for him if he does.
Him and Gretchen
Which do you consider freebies for Gretchen? 50 and 100 fly? She may have a shot in the backstrokes (with the 100 being a bit weaker than the 50 I think). Not so bullish on her chances in the freestyles as the fastest yard swimmer in each is only #10 all time in SCM, so Gretchen’s dominance in that format is less telling
I dont think the 2fly is a freebie anymore, nor are the other times even though it would be expected that he breaks them all.
He’s confirmed that he’s training at home in France for the rest of 2024 and racing the World Cup meets next month, so there’s a decent chance that he also races SC Worlds
What a legend I wish SCM got more focus.
I think when he set the 400 IM SC world record he was swimming for Energy Standard…
Enter “L MARCHAND”