Japan swimming trials 2024: Seto Daiya avoids Olympic exit by winning 200m IM
It was now or never for two-time Olympian Seto Daiya - and he rose to the challenge.
The four-time world champion finally secured a quota* for Paris 2024 in the 200m individual medley on Saturday (23 March), his last race of the Japanese swimming trials.
Seto finished first in 1:56.87 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, going well under the qualifying time of 1:57.51. Runner-up Ogata So suffered heartbreak as he finished outside the mark by just 0.01.
“I’ve been in plenty of races like this before with my back against the wall so, to be honest, I wasn’t nervous or freaking out. It was more like, 'Here we go again,'” said Seto, who turns 29 in May and is now training under Michael Bohl and Janelle Pallister in Australia along with Ikee Rikako.
“I just tried to enjoy it which I managed to do. I had fun under the pressure. With the long career I had, I have a lot under my belt.
“Now I want to better my PB on a much bigger stage than this - at the Olympics.”
The Rio 2016 bronze medallist had failed to meet the qualifying time in the 400m IM, his signature race, as well as the 200m butterfly. His hopes of making a third, and probably last, Olympic Games came down to the penultimate day of the meet.
But Seto got the job done. He was steady throughout the race, pulling away in the breaststroke just as he had planned and touching the wall a second off his personal best.
Having earned a seat at the table, Seto already has his sights set on the summer.
“I left it until the last race and I want to thank everyone for their patience,” he said. “I definitely screwed up in the 400m but I’ve been doing what I needed to be done in training so I had faith.
“Today was something I just had to do in order to get to the Olympics. Leave it to me this summer.”
*****As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
