Daiya Seto has been having a phenomenal week at Short Course Worlds, including a win in the 400 IM and a third place showing in the 200 IM. He padded on to his weekly accomplishments this morning with a new meet record in the 200 fly with a new standard of 1:50.82, thus taking down the old standard of 1:51.01 by Kazuya Kaneda in 2012.
Comparative splits of the old and new records:
2012 – Kaneda – 24.93, 53.21 (28.28), 1:22.03 (28.82), 1:51.01 (28.98)
2014 – Seto – 25.09, 53.65 (28.56), 1:22.01 (28.36), 1:50.82 (28.81)
Seto has already been a 1:49.68 this year from just over a month ago at the World Cup stop in Tokyo, so he has another chance to improve upon the record tonight. However, he will have to fend off World Record holder Chad le Clos of South Africa and Tom Shields of the United States in the process.
So far this year, the aforementioned names have turned in the three fastest times of the year with le Clos leading at a 1:48.88, Seto following with a 1:49.68, and Shield holding a year-best time of 1:50.08. If this race is anything like the 100 fly, where le Clos broke the world record and Shields also broke 49 seconds, we could have a very exciting final few meters in the final.