Korea's young swimmer demonstrates potential for future golds

 

Swimmer Hwang Sun-woo checks his time after racing in the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the Olympic host city of Tokyo, Tuesday. Yonhap
Swimmer Hwang Sun-woo checks his time after racing in the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the Olympic host city of Tokyo, Tuesday. Yonhap

Hwang Sun-woo finishes seventh in 200-meter freestyle

By Lee Min-hyung

Korea's rising swimming star, Hwang Sun-woo, demonstrated his medal-winning potential during the Tokyo Olympics, Tuesday, despite fading in the last 50 meters of the men's 200-meter freestyle final.

Hwang finished seventh, or second-to-last, in a time of 1:45.26 during the much-anticipated competition; but narrowly missed beating his record of 1:44.62, set Sunday in a sensational swim as the fastest qualifier.

But the young athlete surprised the world by reaching the 100-meter touch pad, the swim's halfway point, in only 49.78 seconds.

It was an impressive feat for the 18-year-old, as the Olympics was his first major international competition.

Hwang's Olympic debut has built up a lot of anticipation here, with fans and critics expecting him to bring home a gold medal from Tokyo for the first time in nine years after Korea's first Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan.

"I tend to fall behind when racing after my competitors, so I pursued a strategy of being in the lead from the beginning," Hwang told reporters in a post-match interview. "I am afraid though that I got left behind in the final 50 meters, as I could not keep up," he said.

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But he set a new national 스포츠토토사이트 in the men's 100-meter freestyle heats Tuesday evening when he finished in 47.97 seconds, the fastest in Korea's swimming history, raising hopes for him to still step onto the podium. His previous record was 48.04 in the freestyle.

Hwang will race in the semifinals scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Swimmer Hwang Sun-woo checks his time after racing in the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the Olympic host city of Tokyo, Tuesday. Yonhap
Swimmer Kim Seo-yeong cries after failing to make the finals in the women's 200-meter medley of the 2020 Olympics, at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo, Tuesday. Yonhap

Following Hwang's 200-meter freestyle, Kim Seo-yeong, swam in the women's 200-meter medley but ended up coming in 12th in the semifinals, failing to make the final.

She was also a strong medal contender at the Olympics, and has considerably more international experience than Hwang. Kim joined the national team for the first time in 2009 when she was a middle school student, and has since swum in a series of global tournaments.

Kim won a gold medal in the women's 200-meter medley during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, where she set a Korean record at 2:08.34.

She had been anticipated to win a medal during the Olympics as well, if she were to finish close to her record. But clocking in at 2:11.38 in the semifinals, Kim failed to extend her winning streak.

The 27-year-old swimmer shed tears for a minute after checking her post-swim time.

"I was confident before the event, and tried to do well for the first 100 meters, but I failed to keep up with the pace afterwards," she said. "While racing in the events on Monday and Tuesday, I felt that the level of my real event experience was weak."

This is the third time Kim has competed in the Games. Even if she has not clinched any medals so far, she has continued to give better performances in the past decade as a star swimmer on the national team.

On Wednesday, she will compete in the women's 800-meter freestyle relay.

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