Hwang Seon-woo (19, Gangwon-do Office), the ‘signboard of Korean swimming’, competed closely with rival David Popovich (Romania) from the preliminary round, and ended the 2022 International Swimming Federation (FINA) Short Course World Championships men’s freestyle 100m preliminary round. Finished 6th and advanced to the semifinals.
On the second day of the competition held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Center on the 14th, Hwang Seon-woo took the touchpad in the 9th group of the men’s 100m preliminary round with a time of 46.36 seconds, placing 6th out of 84 athletes participating in the event.
He was a good pace, only 0.02 seconds behind the Korean record of 46 seconds 34, which he recorded at this event last year (held in Abu Dhabi, UAE).
Hwang Seon-woo enters the list of 16 players in the semi-finals, which starts at 6:00 pm on the same day, and competes for a total of 8 final tickets. The final will be held on the 15th at 5:42pm.
Hwang Seon-woo, who is scheduled to compete in three events, including men’s 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 800m relay, raced against strong competitors from the first edition of the 100m, his first event.
Popovich, who won the men’s 100m and 200m at the 2022 Long Course World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary last June, and 안전놀이터 Maxime Gruse (France), who is outstanding in the short course, belonged to group 9 of the total 11 groups in the preliminary round.
In particular, Hwang Seon-woo drew attention as he settled in lane 5, and Popovich, who is regarded as his lifelong rival, settled in lane 6 right next to him.
Hwang Seon-woo, who jumped into the water with a starting record of 0.63 seconds and 2nd place out of 8 people in 9 groups, cut the first 25m and 50m in 10.48 and 22.18 seconds, respectively, to maintain second place after Grouse.
However, Popovich gained strength from then on and fought fiercely with Hwang Seon-woo for second place.
Until the 75m turn, Hwang Seon-woo recorded 34.35 and was slightly ahead of Popovich, who recorded 34.41, but allowed a turnaround in the last 25m spurt.
In the end, in Group 9, Gruse took first place with a time of 45.77 seconds, Popovich took second place with a time of 46.15 seconds, and Hwang Seon-woo took third place with a time of 46.36 seconds.
After all of the 11th group was finished, Hwang Seon-woo settled in 6th place and won the semi-final ticket without difficulty.
Meanwhile, Jordan Crookes, from the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, recorded a time of 45.61 seconds, taking first place in the overall preliminaries, emerging as a strong candidate for the championship.
Kyle Chalmers (Australia), who holds the world record in this event with a time of 44.84 seconds, came in third overall with a time of 45.84 seconds. Italy’s Alessandro Miresi also took 5th place ahead of Hwang Seon-woo with a time of 46.22 seconds, indicating that he is a competitor.