Neck-and-Neck Battle with World Number 1… Rising Star Wins Silver

[Anchor]

South Korean swimming's rising star, 20-year-old Kim Young-beom, has won the silver medal in his first event, the 100-meter freestyle. He engaged in a nail-and-bite race to the finish against Olympic champion Pan Zhanle of China, falling short by just 0.04 seconds. Hwang Sun-woo claimed the bronze medal.

Ha Seong-nyong reports from Tokyo.

[Reporter]

Kim Young-beom showed blazing speed from the preliminaries, finishing first in his heat and advancing to the final in third place overall, behind world number one Pan Zhanle and national team senior Hwang Sun-woo.

Assigned to lane 3 in the final, Kim dove powerfully at the starting gun and engaged in a fierce three-way battle with Pan and Hwang.

Leveraging his 195 cm height and long reach, he surged forward to turn at the 50-meter mark in first place. With just 10 meters remaining, he held a slight edge over Pan, but allowed Pan to overtake him right before hitting the touch pad, finishing with a time of 47.65 seconds, 0.04 seconds behind.

While Pan claimed the top spot for the second consecutive time, Kim took home the silver and Hwang won the bronze.

Kim, who competed only in relay events and won two silver medals in Hangzhou three years ago, adorned his first individual medal in silver. He shared the joy by standing on the podium alongside his senior Hwang Sun-woo, who secured a bronze medal for the second straight time.

[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: A silver medal is also such a wonderful medal. It feels like I've achieved a huge milestone in my career with an individual event medal, so I'm thrilled.]

[Hwang Sun-woo / National Swimming Team Member: My time is a bit disappointing, but since I'm starting off by hanging a medal around my neck, I need to do well in the upcoming races and work hard to upgrade to a better medal.]

Kim Young-beom will compete in the 50-meter freestyle tomorrow (September 21) to challenge for his first gold medal once again, while Hwang Sun-woo will take part in the 800-meter freestyle relay aiming for consecutive team victories.

In the men's 100-meter backstroke, Lee Ju-ho finished third, claiming the bronze medal for the third consecutive time.

(Camera Journalist: Park Hyun-chul, Video Editor: Shin Se-eun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.