‘Defending champion’ Hwang Seon-woo (19, Gangwon Provincial Office) advanced to the final by a narrow margin in the 200m freestyle at the Short Course (25m) World Championships.
Hwang Seon-woo ranked 3rd in 4 groups and 8th out of 46 overall with a record of 1:42:44 in the men’s 200m freestyle qualifier at the 2022 International Swimming Federation Short Course World Championships held at the Sports and Aquatic Center in Melbourne, Australia on the 18th (Korean time). . The top 8 players managed to get a ticket to the finals.
David Popovic (Romania), a freestyle 100m and 200m gold medalist at the last Budapest World Championships, competed with Hwang Seon-woo in Group 4 and advanced to the finals with a time of 1:42:31 and 6th overall. Tom Dean (Great Britain), the 200m freestyle gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, reached the final with a time of 1:40:98, first overall. The finals will be held at 6:50 p.m.
The Short Course World Championships is a tournament that has a very special meaning for Hwang Sun-woo. At this event held in Abu Dhabi, 토토 United Arab Emirates last December, he won the first gold medal in a major tournament with a record of 1:41:60, proving his competitiveness on the international stage, and at the Long Course World Championships this year, Popovich won a silver medal around his neck. Along with, it was clearly announced that the 200m freestyle is an ’emerging two-top’.
Hwang Seon-woo’s best record in this event is 1:40:99. It is the best Korean record set in the men’s relay 800m final on the 16th, and it is also an Asian record that surpasses Park Tae-hwan’s record of 1:41:03 when he won the 2016 World Short Course Championships. Hwang Seon-woo set a new Korean record of 6:49:67 along with Kim Woo-min (21, Gangwon Provincial Office), Lee Ho-jun (21, Daegu Metropolitan City), and Yang Jae-hoon (24, Gangwon-do Provincial Office) in the men’s relay 800m along with the Korean record in the 200m. The fourth place was the highest ever recorded.
With the 100m freestyle, 800m freestyle relay, and the 200m freestyle preliminaries, where she poured her all into the race, a quick recovery is the key to challenging her dream of winning her second consecutive victory in the finals this afternoon. Hwang Seon-woo received the 8th lane. He aims for two consecutive podiums alongside Popovich, the ‘outstanding rival’ who is located in lane 7. Maxime Gruse (France) will play in the 3rd lane, Tom Dean (UK) in the 4th lane, and Kashiro Masumoto, the “Japanese ace” in the 5th lane.