Hwang Sun-woo Claims Silver in Men's 200m Freestyle... Falls Short in Final Stretch

[Anchor]

Hwang Sun-woo, bidding for his second consecutive title in the men's 200m freestyle, settled for a hard-fought silver medal. He maintained the lead until the latter part of the race, but was the second to touch the wall behind China's Zhang Zhanshuo, who set a new Asian record.

Reporting from Tokyo, this is Ha Seong-nyong.

[Reporter]

With Kim Woo-min withdrawing due to a shoulder injury, Hwang competed alone in the 200m freestyle. He advanced to the final as the second-fastest overall in the preliminaries. Stepping onto the starting blocks after taking a deep breath, he gave everything from the start in pursuit of becoming the first Korean to win back-to-back 200m freestyle titles in 16 years, following Park Tae-hwan, who is now an SBS commentator.

Engaged in a fierce three-way battle with China's Zhang Zhanshuo and Japan's Murasawa, Hwang passed the 150-meter mark in first place, but lacked stamina in the final stretch.

He allowed a charging Zhang Zhanshuo to overtake him at the 170-meter mark, ultimately touching the pad in second place with a time of 1 minute, 44.62 seconds.

Although his bid for consecutive gold medals fell just short, Hwang showed sportsmanship by giving a thumbs-up to Zhang, who won the race by shaving 0.43 seconds off Hwang's previous Asian record. The two athletes embraced and encouraged each other.

[Hwang Sun-woo / National Swimming Team : It's insane.]

[Hwang Sun-woo / National Swimming Team : I think I really raced like my life was on the line. But again, my final 50 meters kind of fell apart quite a bit this time too, so I feel like I still have a long, long way to go.]

Hwang, a two-time gold medalist at the Hangzhou Games, wrapped up his individual events this time with a bronze in the 100m freestyle and a silver in the 200m freestyle.

[Hwang Sun-woo / National Swimming Team : It should have been a gold medal, ah. It feels like I've become a challenger who has to break (the Asian record) again, but I will always take on the challenge and train hard to reach the top spot and show you my best.]

His challenge is not over yet.

Hwang will fuel his fighting spirit once more tomorrow (September 24) in his final event, the 400m freestyle relay.

Meanwhile, the mixed 400m medley relay team grabbed a bronze medal with a new Korean record.

Kim Young-beom, swimming the anchor leg, secured his fourth medal, while Kim Seung-won claimed her third bronze following the women's 50m and 100m backstroke.

(Video by Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek | Graphics by Park Taeyoung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.