Daiya Seto again earned bragging rights over Kosuke Hagino in the men's 400 individual medley, beating the Rio gold medalist on Saturday at the Japan Open after beating him at April's national championships.
Seto, the Olympic bronze medalist in Brazil, won in 4 minutes, 10.18 seconds at Tatsumi International Swimming Center. Hagino settled for third in 4:11.53. Seto was 0.26 second faster than in Nagoya, where he edged his rival by a hundredth of a second.
The race got off to a slow start but Seto made sure he was ahead after Hagino's favorite backstroke. The time was nowhere near his target of new a national record below 4:06.00, but Seto took positives out of the race ahead of the world championship this summer in Budapest, where he eyes a third straight win.