[Asian Games] Hwang Sun-woo and Lee Ho-jun to Share Podium in 200m Freestyle?

Each advancing from preliminaries ranked 1st and 3rd overall
Competing for medals today at 8:48 PM

Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Province Office) advanced to the final as the overall first place in the men's freestyle 200m heats at the Hangzhou Asian Games swimming competition. In the third heat held on the 27th at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Swimming Pool in Zhejiang Province, China, he touched the pad at 1 minute 47.08 seconds. It was the best time among the thirty-six competitors. Lee Ho-jun (22, Daegu Metropolitan City Office), who competed in the fifth heat, passed the heats in third place overall (1 minute 48.13 seconds). Japan's Mano Hidenari (23) recorded 1 minute 47.79 seconds for second place, and China's Pan Zhanle (19) finished fourth with 1 minute 48.42 seconds.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The top eight swimmers from the heats, including these athletes, will compete for medals at 8:48 PM that day. The most likely gold medal contender is undoubtedly Hwang Sun-woo. He won medals in the freestyle 200m at two consecutive World Championships (2nd place in Budapest 2022, 3rd place in Fukuoka 2023). His personal best time is 1 minute 44.42 seconds, which is 0.23 seconds faster than Pan Zhanle's 1 minute 44.65 seconds. The difference from the Asian record of 1 minute 44.39 seconds held by China's Sun Yang (31) is only 0.03 seconds.

Hwang Sun-woo already won his first individual medal at the Asian Games by placing third in the freestyle 100m on the 24th. On the 25th, he earned a gold medal in the team event, the 800m freestyle relay, and on the 26th, he took home a silver medal in the men's medley relay 400m. If he adds a gold medal in the freestyle 200m, he will become the first Korean swimmer in 13 years since Park Tae-hwan, who achieved three consecutive gold medals at the Doha 2006 and Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games, to win two or more gold medals in a single Asian Games. Hwang Sun-woo said, "I prepared hard and performed well in the heats," adding, "I want to achieve good results in the afternoon."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee Ho-jun's strong performance is also noteworthy. He reached the final alongside Hwang Sun-woo at the Fukuoka World Championships, finishing sixth with a time of 1 minute 46.04 seconds. This was the first time Korean swimmers competed simultaneously in the final of a World Swimming Championships freestyle event. If both swimmers stand on the podium together on this day, Korean men's swimming will produce two medalists in a single event at the Asian Games for the first time in 21 years since the 2002 Busan Games men's freestyle 1500m (2nd place Jo Seong-mo, 3rd place Han Gyu-cheol). Lee Ho-jun said, "I want to break my personal best (1 minute 45.70 seconds) and stand on the podium together with Hwang Sun-woo."

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