'Hwang Sunwoo in the Deaf Room, consoling Kim Woo-min' There is still a dream of 800m relay in Han Soo-young

Jul 29, 2024

Sad Hwang Sun-woo failed to advance to the final

Hwang Sun-woo, who is disappointed at the failure to advance to the final

Sad Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min

After taking a picture of the touchpad, he held his head as soon as he checked the ranking of the electronic display board. I felt the fate that was coming. Kim Woo-min, his best friend, covered and comforted Hwang Sun-woo's shoulders, who dropped his head as the final "0.04 second difference" failed. The elimination of a strong medal candidate, the gold medalist at the 2024 Doha World Championships, is an unexpected and shocking result.

In the men's 200m freestyle semifinal at the Paris Olympics held at La Defense Arena in Paris on the 29th (Korea time), Hwang missed the final ticket for the top eight players with a time of 1:45.92 and a total of ninth place. He was devastated to lose his first Olympic medal attempt in his main event.

Hwang Sun-woo passed the first 50m with a time of 24.10 seconds and the 50-100m section with a time of 26.85 seconds to maintain the first place in the first 100m. But somehow, the pace in the second half collapsed sharply. After being pushed to 27 seconds 67 and 4th place in the 100-150m, he finished the last 50-100m section with 27 seconds 30 seconds, finishing 1 minute 45.92 seconds and 5th place in the group. Hwang's early 100m record was second overall to David Popovich in Group 1-2 of the semifinals. The routine that had been in the early 27th second range in the 100-150m 'Magic Section' was broken, and the back-seam spurt did not work even in the last 50m section. Hwang Sun-woo said "I felt like I was under load in the last 50m." It was an incredible elimination of the world champion by 0.04 seconds from eighth place Matsumoto Kasuhiro of Japan.

Graphic=Sports Chosun Reporter Kim Mi-yang

Hwang Sun-woo's best record in this event (Korean new record) was 1:44:40 when he won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. It is painful that the athlete, who has already recorded '44 seconds' since 1:44:96 of the 2021 national team selection match, was eliminated from the semifinal without being able to show his race properly on the dream Olympic stage.

The 100-200m freestyle sprint is a battleground for racers with no different semi-final and final. A slip of the tongue determines the outcome. Records are formed in the 1:46 range of the preliminary round, the 1:45 range of the semifinal round, and the 1:43-44 range of the final round. The record ordered by general manager Junghoon Lee and coach Jeon Dong-hyun for the semifinal was 'early 45 seconds'. SBS commentator Park Tae-hwan also said, `To advance to the final round, we must take pictures of the late 44s and early 45s," he reiterated.

Hwang Sun-woo, who took first place in the Tokyo Olympic qualifying round with a Korean record of 1:44:62 and a world junior record and advanced to the final round with a 1:45:52 and sixth place in the semifinal, took a time of 1:45:26 in the final round to finish seventh and miss the medal, has been in high spirits and counseling for the past three years. "It's different from Tokyo." I've gained a lot of experience." There was no 'overface' in Tokyo, but it is a pity that the race operation did not run to the final despite holding the '44 seconds' record.

Even if the strongest players were absent during the Doha World Championship, it is a big surprise that the world champion, who won the podium for three consecutive years in Budapest in 2022 and Fukuoka in 2023, missed the Olympic finals. Hwang Sun-woo said in an interview after the game that he was disappointed in me"That's why he confided.

But there is no time to be disappointed. As he said, "Because this Olympics is not the end of his swimming life and he still has games left to play.' Above all, the golden generation's long-cherished dream, the men's 800m relay, remains. Korea will again challenge the history of the first team medal in swimming in Korea. Hwang Sun-woo, who has accumulated his physical strength due to the failure of the final, should play a role in shaking off the wounds. Kim Woo-min "I know Sun-woo prepared harder than anyone else. I was disappointed to see the result because I knew we worked hard on each other. "I should shake off the disappointment and show what I've prepared for the last three years in the rest of the game in my best condition."He expressed his determination for the 800m podium in the relay."

South Korea won a 0.1-second silver medal against China with a time of 7:01.94 in the men's 800-meter relay at the Doha World Championships in February, and won its first-ever gold medal with a time of 7:01.73 at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The Olympic team event is another level.

Simply summing up the records of four freestyle 200m aces from each country, Britain (6:58.65) and the U.S. (7:01.24) are expected to compete for gold, while Australia (7:02.26), South Korea (7:02.47), and China (7:02.50) are expected to compete for a close bronze medal touch fight. The men's 800m relay will be followed by the preliminary round at 8:08 p.m. on the 30th and the final round at 5:01 a.m. on the 31st. South Korea, along with the U.S., Japan, France and Germany, were in Group 1 of the preliminary round. Eight out of 16 countries will make the final round. When together, the strong golden generation seeks their first medal in the team event, along with advancing to the final for the first time in Olympic history.

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