Rising Star Kim Young-beom Wins Silver in Close Race Against World No. 1

[Anchor]

South Korean swimming rising star, 20-year-old Kim Young-beom, has won a silver medal in his first event, the 100m freestyle. He engaged in a nail-biting neck-and-neck race with Olympic champion Pan Zhanle of China, falling just 0.04 seconds short. 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 teammate Hwang Sun-woo.

Assigned to lane 3 in the final, Kim launched powerfully off the starting blocks and engaged in a fierce three-way battle with Pan and Hwang.

Utilizing his 195 cm height and long arms to pull ahead smoothly, he turned at the 50m mark in first place. With just 10 meters remaining, he held a slight lead over Pan, but allowed Pan to overtake him right before hitting the touchped, finishing with a time of 47.65 seconds, 0.04 seconds behind.

As Pan claimed the top spot for the second consecutive time, Kim took the silver medal and Hwang secured 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 enjoyed the moment on the podium alongside senior teammate Hwang, who claimed a bronze medal for the second straight time.

[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member : A silver medal is still such a great medal. I feel ecstatic because it feels like I've achieved a huge milestone in my career with an individual event medal.]

[Hwang Sun-woo / National Swimming Team Member : My record is a bit disappointing, but since I'm starting off with a medal anyway, I need to do well in my remaining races and work hard to upgrade to a better color.]

Kim will compete in the 50m freestyle tomorrow to make another bid for his first gold medal, while Hwang will participate in the 800m freestyle relay aiming for back-to-back team victories.

In the men's 100m backstroke, Lee Ju-ho finished third to capture his third consecutive bronze medal.

(Video by Park Hyun-cheol | Video Editing by Shin Se-eun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.