Daiya Seto earns Men’s 400m IM gold: Day one – 2011 Swimming World Cup, Moscow
Japanese swimmer, Daiya Seto proved his mettle for the title of Men’s 400m Individual Medley (IM) on opening day of the 2011 Swimming World Cup in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, October 18.
Moscow is the third leg of seven-stage Swimming World Cup series organised by the international aquatics sport managing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA).
The 17-year-old Seto faced strong competition from Russia’s Alexander Tikhonov and USA’s Chase Kalisz throughout the sixteen-lap IM discipline. He gained a prominent lead from his competitors in start as he ended his initial 100 metres of the race in 56.37
seconds. He was followed by Tikhonov and Kalisz, who clocked a time of 57.60 and 58.93 seconds for the same distance.
In the next round, the arena witnessed an incredible improvement in the sprints of Seto and Tikhonov, who initiated a stroke-to-stroke swim to beat each other for the gold crown. Seto experienced a hard time in getting away from the Russian competitors,
but managed to complete the first half of the race in a fastest time of 1 minute and 59.87 seconds.
On the other hand, Tikhonov remained 0.96 seconds slower than him and enveloped the same distance in a time of 2 minutes and 00.83 seconds.
The battle turned wild in the second half of the swim but with his magnificent stroke and powerful turns, Seto managed to edge out his rival on the finishing end, clocking a time of 4 minutes and 07.16 seconds for gold medal.
With his stupendous efforts, he remained just half a second ahead of his challenger, Tikhonov, who reached the podium for silver medal by submitting a time of 4 minutes and 07.66 seconds.
In the meantime, Kalisz emerged on the finishing wall for third finest spot of the swim. he remained 1.34 seconds behind his preceding swimmer and submitted a time of 4 minutes and 09.00 seconds for bronze medal.
Seto was overjoyed with his gold finish in a FINA organised event whereas the winners received medals for their convincing efforts after the completion of session.
The championship will conclude on October 19 after the completion of day two events.
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