Eunji Lee broke her personal record in the 50m backstroke semifinal and placed 15th
Hwang Seon-woo (19, Gangwon Provincial Government) competed in the ‘lucky semi-final’ race in the 100m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships, but did not make it to the final.
Hwang Seon-woo placed 4th in group 1 and 11th out of 16 in the men’s 100m freestyle semifinal at the 2022 International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary on the morning of the 22nd (Korean time) with a time of 48.08. did.
Seon-woo Hwang, who finished the first 50m section in 23.37 seconds, crossed the current in 24.71 in the second half of the 50m section, but was unable to reach the final in which 8 people compete.
Hwang Seon-woo’s best freestyle 100m record is 47.56 seconds in Korea and Asia, set in the semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last year.
David Popovich (Romania), 200m freestyle gold medalist, reached the final with a world junior record of 47.13.
For Hwang Seon-woo, it was a semi-final that was nothing more than a ‘bonus match’.
Initially, Hwang Seon-woo was tied for 17th overall with a time of 48.61 in the preliminary round and failed to advance to the semifinals with the top 16 players.
However, before the semi-finals, 2nd place in the preliminary round, Caleb Dressel (USA), withdrew for ‘medical reasons’, and an opportunity came to Hwang Seon-woo.
Dressel is a world-class star who was selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the men’s division for two consecutive tournaments, winning 7 and 6 medals, respectively, at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest and Gwangju 2019.
In the 100m freestyle, he won two consecutive gold medals and was aiming for a third consecutive victory this time, and he is the strongest in this event, winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
If the semi-finalists were absent, Hwang Seon-woo had to play a rematch (swim-off) with Jack Inserty (Australia), tied for 17th in the preliminary round, and win here to stand on the semi-final starting platform. had expressed its intentions.
After that, Hwang Seon-woo, who was ranked first on the reserve list, was notified of his participation at the dormitory about two hours before the start of the game and moved to the stadium in a hurry.
Although not well prepared, Hwang Seon-woo was 0.53 faster than the preliminary in the semi-final, but did not reach the final.
Hwang Seon-woo finished all the individual events schedule for this event with the end of the 100m freestyle.
Earlier, Hwang Seon-woo set a new Korean record of 1:44.47 in the 200m freestyle final and decorated his first medal in a long course major in silver.
Hwang Seon-woo was the second Korean athlete to win a medal in the management event of the Long Course World Championship after Park Tae-hwan (two gold medals and one bronze medal).
After Park Tae-hwan, who won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle event in Shanghai, China in 2011, Hwang Seon-woo won the medal for the first time in 11 years as a Korean management athlete, and in the 200m freestyle event, he surpassed Park Tae-hwan’s bronze medal at the 2007 Melbourne Games, Australia, and achieved the best record in Korean swimming history.
Hwang Seon-woo is scheduled to compete in the 800m relay event on the afternoon of the 23rd.
Meanwhile, Eunji Lee (Bangsan High School) took 8th place in group 2 and 15th overall in the women’s 50m backstroke semifinal by taking a touch pad in 28.26.
Eun-ji Lee, who advanced to the semifinals in 15th place out of 39 in the preliminary round with a time of 28.38, reduced her personal best record (28.36) set at the national selection contest in March by 0.1 seconds, but could not raise her rank further.
The Korean record for this event is 28.17 seconds, set in 2016 by Yoo Hyeon-ji, who was a member of the Jeonbuk Athletic Association.
If Eunji Lee placed in the 8th place on that day, she would be able to compete in the women’s 50m backstroke final at the World Championships for the first time in 17 years for a Korean athlete since Nam-eun Lee (8th place) at the 2005 Montreal Games in Canada.
Eunji Lee also reached the semifinals in the 100m backstroke in this event and placed 11th.
/yunhap news
