Japanese teen Daiya Seto rewrote his own record Thursday en route to winning the men's 400-meter individual medley on the second day of the short-course FINA World Swimming Championships.
Eighteen-year-old Seto shaved 0.87 second off his previous mark to take the gold medal in 3 minutes, 59.15 seconds in the final, touching the wall ahead of Hungarians Laszlo Cseh and David Verraszto, who timed 4:00.50 and 4:02.87, respectively.
"This is a huge confidence boost for me," said Seto, who missed out on a spot in the London Olympics. "I will try to aim for the gold medal at next year's (long-course) world championships (in Barcelona)."
London Olympic bronze medalist Kosuke Hagino trailed in fourth in 4:04.13.
Akihiro Yamaguchi, who owns the long-course world record in the 200-meter breaststroke, could only manage a seventh-place finish in 58.26 in the men's 100 breaststroke won by Italy's Fabio Scozzoli, who touched in 57.10.
In the men's 4x200, Japan's team led by Yuki Kobori came sixth in 7:00.79. Ryan Lochte led the United States to the gold medal in 6:51.40, while Australia and Germany placed second and third, respectively, in 6:52.29 and 6:53.22.