19-Year-Olds Set New Korean Records... Three More Silver Medals in Swimming

[Anchor]

Yesterday, the swimming team added three silver medals to the tally.

Ha Seong-nyong has more in the following report.

[Reporter]

After finishing second overall in the preliminaries, Park Si-eun powered through the water with even greater strength in the final.

Maintaining third place from the early stages, she picked up speed as she passed the 100-meter mark, overtaking competitors from China and Japan in succession to turn at the 150-meter mark in the lead.

She just lacked a bit of a finishing kick.

About 10 meters before the finish line, she was overtaken by Kato of Japan, touching the pad in second place by a margin of just 0.12 seconds.

Although she missed out on the gold, Park broke her own Korean record by 0.52 seconds with a time of 2 minutes, 22.69 seconds. Overwhelmed by the joy of her first individual medal and the bitter disappointment of narrowly missing the top spot, she shed tears for a long time.

[Park Si-eun / National Swimming Team:] "I missed first place by such a tiny margin, so I feel relieved yet disappointed, and I miss my mom."

Expressing her gratitude to her parents who cheered for her from the stands, Park's eyes welled up again as she thought of her grandfather, who passed away around the time she first started swimming.

[Park Si-eun / National Swimming Team:] "It felt like my grandfather was there where the South Korean flag was hanging, so I missed him so much, and tears came to my eyes out of deep gratitude to him."

In the men's 800-meter freestyle, where Kim Woo-min withdrew due to a shoulder injury, the national team's youngest member, Kim Jun-woo, won a surprise silver medal.

He passed the 700-meter mark in third place, but with a fierce final spurt, he touched the pad simultaneously with Japan's Tabuchi to tie for second place.

Kim Jun-woo shaved 2.17 seconds off senior teammate Kim Woo-min's Korean record, claiming his first-ever individual medal.

[Kim Jun-woo / National Swimming Team:] "I am just glad if I could comfort Woo-min's disappointment even a little bit like this."

The men's 400-meter freestyle relay team edged past Japan to win the silver medal, powered by a thrilling comeback race from the final swimmer, Kim Young-bum.

Kim Woo-min, who had competed in the preliminaries despite a shoulder injury, shared in the joy from the stands.

Meanwhile, the women's 800-meter freestyle relay team and Cho Sung-jae in the men's 200-meter breaststroke each captured bronze medals.

Having added five medals in a single day, the South Korean swimming team will continue its quest for more medals across seven events today, the final day of the six-day competition.

(Photo courtesy of Park Hyun-cheol | Video editing by Park Jung-sam)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.