Tokyo 2020, Asia Recap Day 3: Daiya Seto Has One Final Chance

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)
• Full aquatics schedule
• SwimSwam Event Previews
• Entry Lists
• Live Results

Only One Japanese Man Moves on in 200 Fly & It’s Not Daiya Seto

The two-time 2019 world champion Daiya Seto of the host nation continued to have a rocky meet during day 3 finals. The 27-year-old was taking on his 2nd event of the 200m fly, competing in the semi-finals along with his compatriot Tomoru Honda.

As we have well-documented, Seto was a favorite to top the podium in the 400m IM given he was the top-seeded swimmer and took gold in Gwangju. However, he placed 9th and didn’t even make it to the final to try to upgrade his 2016 Olympic bronze.

Flash forward to yesterday and Seto wound up 11th in the 2fly. Although his time of 1:55.50 was a decent effort by itself, every nanosecond counts when you’re up against the likes of Olympic Tamas Kenderesi and reigning world champion Kristof Milak of Hungary.

In fact, those swimmers who placed 3rd through 15th out of the 200m fly semi-finals were all within a second of one another, which meant Seto’s 11th place missed by just .15. Honda will have to carry the torch in the event, with his squeaking into 8th place.

Quick Hits

• China’s Yang Junxuan looked solid in the women’s 200m free semi-finals, nabbing seed #4 in a mark of 1:55.98. She entered these Olympics ranked 3rd in the world with a season-best of 1:54.57.
• Sitting above Yang, however, is Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey. The former Michigan Wolverine posted a strong 1:55.16 to flank Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in today’s final. Haughey is the national record holder in this event, owning a lifetime best of 1:54.89.
• The Korean whiz kid Hwang Sunwoo made his mark on the men’s 200m free final, opening in a wicked-fast 49.78. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t maintain the speed as the rest of the field caught up to him, rendering the 18-year-old 7th in 1:45.26 in his Olympic final debut.
• Reigning 100m backstroke world champion Ju Xiayu proved to be a non-factor come the final, as the Chinese swimmer put up a time of 52.51 for 5th.
• Taipei’s Eddie Wang produced a new national record of 1:54.44 in the 200m fly heats but missed out on following up on a finals-worthy performance.
• Yui Ohashi of Japan was once again a highlight for the home nation, as the 400m IM gold medalist here logged the 5th fastest 200m IM semi-final time of 2:09.79.

Continental & National Records Through Day 3

• Chinese Record in women’s 4x100m free relay – 3:34.76
• Chinese Record and Asian Record for Li Bingjie in 400m free 4:01.08
• World Junior Record and Korean Record for Hwang Sunwoo in the men’s 200m free heats – 1:44.62

Medals Table for Asia Through Day 3