Hwang Seon-woo (20, Gangwon Provincial Office) advanced to the men’s 100m freestyle finals
by placing second in the preliminary round, following Wang Hao-yu (18, China).
Hwang Sun-woo finished the race in 48.54 seconds in the men’s 100m freestyle preliminary group 6 match held at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center swimming pool on the 24th.
It was his first individual Asian Games match. 파워볼
Although he beat Fan Zhanle (48.66 seconds), who competed in the same group,
he could not beat Wang Haoyu’s record (48.13 seconds), who competed in group 4.
A total of 44 people participated in the preliminaries on this day,
the top 8 received tickets to the finals.
Fan Zhanle
Hojun Lee also advanced to the finals in 49.24 seconds and 7th place overall.
The men’s 100m freestyle final will be held at 9:26 pm Korean time.
The preliminary round was an exploration match.
The ‘real match’ unfolds in the finals.
Looking at the history and records, the number one candidate to win this event is Pan Zhanle.
Fan Zhanle set a new Asian record in the 100m freestyle with a time of 47.22 seconds at the Hangzhou Asian Games held in May.
The previous Asian record for the 100m freestyle was 47.56 seconds set by Sun-woo Hwang at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Hwang Sun-woo
At the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships held in July in the 100m freestyle,
Fan Zhanle placed 4th (47.43 seconds),
Sun-woo Hwang placed 9th (48.08 seconds) in the semifinals,
unfortunately failing to advance to the final stage.
However, Hwang Sun-woo acknowledged Fan Zhanle‘s superiority,
but expressed his competitive spirit, saying,
“The records were good during training.
If both me and Pan Zhanle do our best, we will both record good records.”
Among Korean athletes, only one, Park Tae-hwan,
has won a medal in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Asian Games.
Tae-hwan Park won a silver medal in this event in Doha in 2006 and a gold medal in Guangzhou in 2010.
Hwang Sun-woo, who is active as a leading figure in Korean swimming management after Park Tae-hwan’s retirement,
will attempt to become the second Asian Games men’s 100m freestyle winner after Park Tae-hwan later this afternoon.