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Daiya Seto Medals in 7th Straight World Aquatics Championships

REUTERS
Japan’s Daiya Seto in action during the men’s 400m medley final in the World Aquatics Championships at Aspire Dome, Doha, Qatar on February 18.

By Kazunori Hirachi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

14:57 JST, February 19, 2024

DOHA — Daiya Seto won a medal at a seventh straight World Aquatics Championships when the Japanese veteran finished third in the men’s 400-meter individual medley in Doha on Sunday, the final day of the meet.

Seto clocked 4 minutes 12.51 seconds to win the bronze, the 10th world medal of a career that includes four golds. It was Japan’s second swimming medal of the championships after Tomoru Honda won the men’s 200 butterfly.

The 29-year-old Seto looked like he was going to repeat his fourth-place finish from the 200 medley when he passed American Carson Foster in the final 50 meters to snatch the bronze. New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt won the race in 4:09.72.

Seto had set a sub-4:09 target and did not expect his effort to be good enough to win a medal. “I’m surprised,” he said. “I’m like, ‘With that time?’”

Seto, a bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, will now return to his training base in Australia and prepare for Japan’s Olympic trials in March.