[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] A new record has been set in Korean swimming. Hwang Sun-woo (19, Gangwon Province Office) won the silver medal in the men's 200m freestyle at the Long Course (50m) World Swimming Championships. This is the best result ever for a Korean athlete.
On the morning of the 21st (Korean time), Hwang Sun-woo competed in the men's 200m freestyle final at the 2022 FINA World Championships held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary, finishing in 2nd place with a time of 1:44.47. The gold medal went to David Popovici (Romania) with a time of 1:43.21. Hwang improved his own Korean record set during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic qualifiers (1:44.62) by 0.15 seconds.
Starting in lane 3, Hwang had the fastest reaction time off the blocks at 0.61 seconds. He passed the first 50m segment in 24.68 seconds, ranking 4th, and maintained 4th place up to the 100m mark. By the 150m mark, he moved up to 3rd place, and in the final 50m stretch, he sprinted past Dean to touch the pad in 2nd place.
This is the first swimming medal in 11 years and the first 200m freestyle medal in 15 years for Korea. Including Park Tae-hwan, who won gold in the 400m freestyle in 2007 and 2011, and Kim Su-ji, who won bronze in the women's 1m springboard diving in 2019, this is the third medal ever for Korean athletes at the World Championships. It also surpasses Park Tae-hwan's bronze medal in the 200m freestyle in 2007.
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