Hwang Sun-woo is 13th overall in prelims Lee Ho-joon is fifth
After the semifinals of the 200-yard freestyle at 9:11 p.m. on the 24th
South Korean swimming sensation Hwang Sun-woo (20-Gangwon Provincial Office) continued his quest for a second consecutive medal at the International Swimming Federation World Championships, narrowly missing out on the semifinals of the men’s 200m freestyle.
Lee Ho-joon (22-Daegu Metropolitan City Government) qualified for the 200m freestyle for the first time as an individual at a World Championships.
Hwang touched the touchpad in 1:46.69 in heat seven of the men’s business freestyle preliminaries at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships at Fukuoka Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall in Fukuoka, Japan, on Thursday to finish fifth in his heat.
Lee Ho-joon, who raced in the same heat, finished higher. He clocked a time of 1:46.21, good for third in his heat.
Hwang finished 13th out of 72 athletes in his heat, punching his ticket to the semifinals, which is reserved for the top 16 qualifiers.
Lee qualified for the semifinals in fifth place overall.
Sunwoo Hwang, who looked to have adjusted his pace in the heats, almost missed out on a semifinal berth. Only 0.01 seconds separated Hwang and Antonio Jakovic (SUI-1:46.70), who finished 16th, from the semifinals.
Hwang entered the water with a 0.61-second reaction time and was fifth in his heat with a time of 24.84 through 50 meters. By the 100-meter mark, he was in third place with a time of 52.18, but he dropped to fourth in the 100-150-meter section before finishing fifth.
Lee Ho-joon also didn’t seem to be giving it his all, but he qualified in a more stable position than Hwang Sun-woo.
Lee ran 24.71 to finish second in the 50-meter dash. He dropped to fifth place in the 100-150 meters, but picked up the pace in the 100-150 meters to move into second place and was the third man in his heat to touch the touchpad.
If Lee and Hwang finish in the top eight in today’s semifinals, which begin at 9:11 p.m., they will compete in the final at 8:02 p.m. on Friday.
Hwang, who won silver at last year’s World Championships in Budapest with a Korean record of 1:44.47, will be looking for his second consecutive medal.
It has been 11 years since a South Korean businessman stood on the podium at a World Championships since Park Tae-hwan won gold in the 400m freestyle in Shanghai in 2011. It was also the best result by a South Korean athlete in the men’s 200m freestyle at a World Championships, surpassing Park’s bronze medal at Melbourne 2007.
Hwang Sun-woo will attempt to win his second consecutive World Championships medal at the event. No South Korean swimmer has ever won back-to-back medals at a World Championships.
Prior to Hwang last year, Park Tae-hwan was the only other Korean medalist in the business events at the World Championships, winning gold in the 400m freestyle and bronze in the 200m at Melbourne, Australia, in 2007, but was shocked to be eliminated in the preliminaries of all events at Rome, Italy, in 2009.
He returned to the World Championships in 2011 in Shanghai, China, where he won the 400m freestyle gold medal, but missed the 2013 edition in Barcelona, Spain, for rest, and the 2015 edition in Kazan, Russia, for doping. Park failed to medal at his last World Championships, Budapest 2017.
Lee, who qualified for the individual event for the first time at the World Championships, will look to make his first final appearance in the semifinals.
Lee, who qualified in the 200 and 400 meters freestyle at his first World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2019, 카지노사이트 only swam the 800 meters freestyle relay in Budapest last year.