Hwang Seon-woo (19, Gangwon-do Office, photo), the hope of Korean swimming, ended 2022 with splendor. Now, he is aiming for the gold medal at the Asian Games and the long course (50m) World Championships to be held next year.

Hwang Seon-woo won the 2022 FINA Short Course (25m) World Swimming Championships men’s freestyle 200m final held at the Sports and Aquatics Center in Melbourne, Australia on the 18th with a new Asian record of 1:39:72. Hwang Seon-woo, who also won the 200m freestyle at this event last year and won his first major world championship, achieved his second consecutive victory.

1:39:72 is a new Asian record that shortened the Asian record of 1:40:99 set by Hwang Seon-woo on the 16th as the first runner in the men’s relay 800m final at this event by 1:27. It is only 0.35 seconds away from the world record (1:39:37) set by Paul Biedermann (Germany) in November 2009 in the ‘full body swimsuit era’.

In particular, it is more meaningful because it was a record made after overcoming the bad news of lane 8 and a finger injury. Hwang Seon-woo injured his right middle finger in the process of taking his final touch pad in the preliminary round held this morning. His finger was swollen and painful, so he had to take painkillers to compete in the finals. Furthermore, as he barely got on the last train to the finals in 8th place, he had to play the race in the most unfavorable lane 8, but he showed great strength.

Hwang Seon-woo ran a tremendous race, 1 second 07 ahead of ‘rival’ David Popovich (Romania, 1 minute 40 seconds 79), who took second place. Popovic is the rising star of the world swimming community who won the 100m and 200m freestyle at the Long Course World Swimming Championships held in Budapest, Hungary this year.

Hwang Seon-woo finished all of the 2022 schedule by defeating a strong competitor. Hwang Seon-woo, who won the silver medal following Popovich (1:43:21) with a new Korean record of 1:44:47 in the 200m freestyle at the Long Course World Swimming Championships in June after training in Australia in April, returned to Turkey in September. He strengthened his stamina through training. 안전놀이터He showed a step forward by winning the gold medal in this competition amidst constant training.

Now Hwang Seon-woo’s eyes are on next year. Next year, the Long Course World Aquatics Championships to be held in Fukuoka, Japan in July and the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September await. Hwang Seon-woo’s golden dream for 2023 is growing.