2023-07-24 14:06:00
Hwang Seon-woo (Gangwon Provincial Office) and Lee Ho-jun (Daegu Metropolitan City Hall) competed in the 2023 World Aquatics Championships Men’s 200m Freestyle semi-final held at Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall on the followingnoon of the 24th, and achieved the splendid feat of advancing to the final with 3rd and 6th respectively.
Hwang Seon-woo started with the fastest start among 8 players in lane 1 of group 1 of the semifinals, kept the lead from start to finish, and was the first to hit the touchpad with a time of 1:45:07.
Lee Ho-jun, who was in Group 2, made a last-minute spurt with the final 50m left, and eventually finished the race in third place (1:45:93) behind defending champion Romania’s David Popovic (1:44:70) and US champion Luke Hobson (1:44:87).
Popovich and Hobson were the only ones to record 1 minute and 44 seconds, followed by Hwang Seon-woo, who settled in the finals in 3rd place overall. Ho-Jun Lee experienced his first world championship final stage in his career, finishing 6th overall behind Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalist Tom Dean (1:44.29) of Great Britain and his teammate Matthew Richards (1:45.93) of the British team.
Meanwhile, Pan Zhanle, a newcomer from the People’s Republic of China and ranked second in the world in this event this season, tied for 10th (1:46.05), failing to advance to the final where the top seven players competed.
Hwang Seon-woo recorded 1:46:69 in the men’s 200m freestyle preliminaries held on the morning of the same day, narrowly advancing to the semifinals with the top 16 participating in a tie for 13th.
Although it fell short of Hwang Seon-woo’s season’s best time of 1:44:61, he recorded 1:44:47 in the final of the World Championships held in Budapest last year, breaking his personal record and winning the silver medal, so he expected to show improved performance in the semifinals and finals.
As if to live up to expectations, the ‘New Marine Boy’ never gave up the lead in the semi-finals, and even showed their composure while smiling at the camera as soon as they finished the race.
Lee Ho-joon recorded 1:46:21 in the preliminaries and comfortably confirmed his progress to the semi-finals in 5th place.
The final featuring Hwang Seon-woo and Lee Ho-jun will be held tomorrow (25th) at 8:02 pm.
Hwang Seon-woo is aiming for the top of the management podium for the first time in 12 years as a Korean athlete since Park Tae-hwan, the ‘original marine boy’.
Men’s 200m Freestyle: Final Schedule
Tuesday 25 July 20:02
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