[Asian Games] 'Swimming Star' Hwang Sun-woo Advances to Freestyle 100m Final with 2nd Place in Heats

Asian Record Holder Pan Zanler Ties for 3rd Place
1st Place Goes to Chinese Rising Star Wang Haoyu

Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Province Office), the flagship of Korean swimming, advanced to the final in the men's 100m freestyle at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games by finishing second in the heats.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 24th, Hwang completed the men's 100m freestyle heat 6 race at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Swimming Pool in China with a time of 48.54 seconds. It was his first Asian Games race.

He finished first in his heat, beating China's Pan Zhanle (48.66 seconds), who competed in the same heat. However, he was behind Wang Haoyu, who competed in heat 4 with a time of 48.13 seconds.

A total of 44 swimmers participated in the heats that day, and the top 8 secured tickets to the final. Lee Ho-jun (22, Daegu Metropolitan City Sports Council) also advanced to the final by finishing 3rd in heat 6 and 7th overall with a time of 49.24 seconds. Pan Zhanle and Matsumoto Katsuhiro (26, Japan) tied for 3rd place with a time of 48.66 seconds.

Hwang Sun-woo will challenge for the gold medal in the final, which will be held at 9:26 PM that day. He is aiming not only for the gold in his main event, the 200m freestyle, but also in the 100m freestyle.

To win the gold medal, Hwang must surpass Pan Zhanle, who currently holds the Asian record in the men's 100m freestyle with a time of 47.22 seconds.

Meanwhile, the only Korean to have won a medal in the men's 100m freestyle at the Asian Games is Park Tae-hwan. Park won the gold medal in this event at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and the silver medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.