Hwang Sun-woo, Korea's First to Challenge Three Consecutive World Championship Medals

Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Province Office), the flagship of Korean swimming, is challenging to win a medal for the third consecutive time at the FINA World Championships, a first for a Korean athlete.

On the 13th (Korean time) at the 2024 FINA World Championships held at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, Hwang recorded a time of 1:45.15 in the men's 200m freestyle semifinals, finishing second overall, 0.19 seconds behind Danas Rap?ys (Lithuania), who took first place. The final will be held at 1:02 AM on the 14th.

Hwang Sun-woo (right) is seen greeting Matsumoto Katsuhiro, who competed in the adjacent lane, after finishing the men's 200m freestyle semifinal at the 2024 FINA World Championships held at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar on the 13th (Korean time) with a time of 1:45.15, ranking second overall.
Photo by AP News

원본보기 아이콘

In the morning heats on the 13th, Hwang qualified for the semifinals by ranking 11th overall with a time of 1:46.99 among 16 competitors. Assigned lane 7 in heat 2, Hwang had the fastest reaction time off the blocks at 0.60 seconds and surged ahead from the start. Throughout the race, he fiercely competed for first place with Germany's Lukas Martens but ultimately yielded the top spot to Rap?ys, who showed a strong finish. Rap?ys completed the last 50m segment in 26.77 seconds, 0.32 seconds faster than Hwang's 27.09 seconds. Martens finished third with a final time of 1:45.53.

In the final, Hwang aims to break his own Korean record of 1:44.40 set at last year's Hangzhou Asian Games and to win a medal for the third consecutive time. He previously won silver (1:44.47) at the 2022 Budapest Championships and bronze (1:44.42) at the 2023 Fukuoka Championships.

So far, only three Korean swimmers have won medals at the FINA World Championships. Park Tae-hwan won gold in the 400m freestyle and bronze in the 200m freestyle at the 2007 Melbourne Championships, and gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2011 Shanghai Championships. This year, on the 12th, Kim Woo-min secured gold in the 400m freestyle.

Hwang is a strong contender for gold in the 200m freestyle. His competitors who previously challenged him, such as David Popovici (Romania), who won in Budapest 2022, and Matthew Richards and Tom Dean (both from the UK), who took first and second place respectively at the 2023 Fukuoka Championships, are all absent from this Doha competition in the 200m freestyle.

If Hwang wins gold in the 200m freestyle, Korean swimming will make new history by winning two gold medals at a single World Championships for the first time.

Meanwhile, Lee Ho-jun, who also advanced to the 200m freestyle semifinals, recorded a time of 1:47.38, finishing 15th overall and failing to qualify for the final. Starting in lane 2 of heat 1, Lee was in third place, 0.58 seconds behind the leader at the 150m mark, but lost speed in the last 50m segment and dropped to seventh place in his heat.

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.