Seong-jae Cho, World Championships 200m breaststroke, missed by 0.12 seconds in final

Korea’s men’s breaststroke strongest player Seong-jae Seong (Goyang City Hall) was unable to break through the finals of the World Swimming Championships by 0.12 seconds.

In the men’s 200m breaststroke semifinal at the 2022 FINA World Championships held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary on the morning of the 23rd (Korean time), Seong-jae Seong finished ninth out of 16 swimmers with a time of 2:09.81.

As a result, Cho Seong-jae failed to advance to the final where the top 8 players competed.

It was even more disappointing because it was only 0.12 seconds behind Japan’s Ryuya Mura (2:09.69), who raced together in the first group of the semi-finals and finished 8th overall.

Seong-jae Cho’s best record in this event is the Korean record (2:08.59) set at the 2020 national selection contest.

With this record in the semifinals of the day, they could advance to the final as second overall behind Australia’s Jack Stubbletee-Cook (2:06.72).

In the breaststroke event of the Long Course World Championships, the only Korean athlete to see at the starting platform for the final was Gyu-woong Choi (7th place) in the men’s 200m breaststroke at the 2011 Shanghai China Championships in Shanghai, China.

In the preliminary round, Jo Seong-jae took the touchpad at 2:10.69 and finished 11th out of 40 people in the semifinals.

In the semi-finals, he raised both the record and the ranking, but failed to cross the threshold to the final.

However, since it is the number one reserve player, if one of the finalists does not attend, they may advance to the final to be held on the morning of the 24th.

Seong-jae Seong-jae also took 11th place in the semifinals of the 100m breaststroke, which he also held in Korea (59.65.65).

The ’13-year-old national team’ Moon Soo-ah (Sangil Girls’ Middle School) placed 14th in the women’s 200m breaststroke semifinal with a record of 2:26.64.

Suah Moon, who finished the race at 2:27.91 in the preliminaries, placed 15th out of 26 participants, and advanced to the semifinals in her first international competition, was also unable to make it to the finals.

Moon Soo-ah, born in November 2008, is the youngest not only in the Korean team but also in the management event of this tournament.

Moon Soo-ah’s best record in this event was 2:25.48, which was set at the National Youth Sports Festival a month ago, but she did not show all of her skills in Budapest.

The Korean record of 2:24.20, written by Seulgi Jeong at the 2009 Jeju Halla Cup National Tournament when he was a member of the Busan Sports Association, has not been broken for 13 years.

After the game, Moon Soo-ah said through the Korea Swimming Federation, “Still, the record came out better than in the preliminary round, and I’m happy that the ranking has risen one notch.”

She continued, “In Korea, we are at the forefront of the situation, but here we chased from behind and moved away from the front, so I was impatient and the game didn’t go well.” I was embarrassed because I was older,” he said of his international debut.

Joo-ho Lee of the Armed Forces Sports Unit, who participated in the men’s 200m backstroke semifinal, also finished 12th with a time of 1:57.55 and was unable to advance to the final.

If it was a Korean record (1:56.77) he wrote in the qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held last year, he was able to finish 5th overall and make it to the final of the backstroke event at the World Championships, the first for a Korean male athlete.

However, following the 100m backstroke, he had to be content with reaching the semifinals in two individual events in this event.

[사진 출처 : AFP=연합뉴스]