World Aquatics Championships 2023: Seto Daiya ready for redemption, and Leon Marchand, after fall from grace
A three-time world champion in the men's 400m IM, the toughened-up Japanese star is itching to orchestrate the mother of upsets when the swimming starts in Fukuoka on Sunday.
Swimming
Seto Daiya used to own swimming's 400 metres individual medley.
He has won the race three times at the World Aquatics Championships - in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Apart from his former teammate, Rio 2016 Olympic champion Hagino Kosuke, and Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Chase Kalisz, Seto did not have much in the way of competition.
That almost seems like another time or a different universe for Seto, whose world fell apart in the months leading up to the Games in Tokyo.
Once projected as a sure thing, Seto came away from Tokyo 2020 without a single medal.
The Downward Spiral
First there was the one-year postponement of the Games, a devastating blow for someone who had been peaking right on schedule. Seto was, at the time, considered one of Japan’s surest gold medal bets.
Then there was the suspension for a non-swimming infraction in September 2020 which saw him lose sponsors and credibility, not to mention his world-class form.
When he was allowed to resume swimming in 2021, Seto was a shadow of his old self. He did not even make it out of the 400 IM heats at the Games, failed to make the final of the 200m butterfly, and placed fourth in the 200 IM.
Once thought to be a lock for the Tokyo podium, Seto was nowhere near it.
Fast forward two years this week to Fukuoka where Seto seems to be born again.
Thanks to the tutelage of whip-cracking coach Kato Tsuyoshi who he has been working with for the last year and a half, there is a toughness to the 29-year-old previously unseen from him.
Seto is fit, confident and raring to go on Sunday (23 July) when the swimming competition kicks off here.
He will launch his campaign in the 400 IM against the likes of Americans Kalisz and Carson Foster, compatriot Honda Tomoru and the strongly fancied Leon Marchand.
Frenchman Marchand is expected to take a shot at Michael Phelps’ world record - the oldest mark in swimming.
“I feel pretty good at the moment,” Seto said on Thursday after his first dip in the main pool. “A year out from Paris, I want to see where I am in the pecking order and see how well I do in Fukuoka, giving it my all. It’s a litmus test for me.
“I have nothing to worry about though. I can simply focus on swimming.”
Marking Marchand
The 21-year-old Marchand - who came within 0.44 of Phelps’ record in Budapest last year - is arguably the most exciting swimmer on the planet alongside freestyler David Popovici.
He is the big dog Seto once was, and the man Seto will be marking come Sunday.
“If I’m ahead by half a length after the back, I’ll breeze through the breast and let him go,” Seto said, explaining his race strategy against Marchand.
“If I’m in the lead halfway through the race, that will be a huge advantage for me. I’ll try to get him to sweat in the breast and then pressure him in the free. If we’re even at the halfway point, I’m going to go for it in the breast.
“But this is what I’ve been training for, to see what I can do when the going gets tough. It’s going to come down to who’s the toughest.”
The last time Seto felt this good? Back in 2019, when he swept the individual medleys and was considered the man to beat.
“I’m far more pumped up than I was last year which to me is a sign that I’ve been training well,” said Seto, whose personal best in the 400 IM is 4:06.09.
“I’m pretty confident as well. I was excited in 2019, too, like I am now and I did well. I hope to ride this wave I’m on. I’m going for it, as far as I can go.”