Hwang Seon-woo set a new Korean record in the 100m short course freestyle and finished sixth at the world championships for the first time in his career.



Hwang Seon-woo set a new Korean record of 46.34 seconds in the men's 100m freestyle final on the last day of the 2021 FINA Short Course World Aquatics Championships held at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).



I shortened the previous Korean record (46.46) by 0.12 seconds when winning the bronze medal at the FINA Management World Cup held in Doha, Qatar, last October.



Hwang Seon-woo took the last train to the semifinals in the 16th place overall at 47.31 in the preliminary round yesterday, and in the semifinals, he finished 5th in 46.46, the same as his Korean record, and landed in the final.



In the final, he broke the Korean record, but failed to win a medal, and Hwang Seon-woo placed 6th out of 8.



Hwang Seon-woo's record of the 50m section in the second half was 24.01, the second fastest after Italy's Alessandro Miresi (23.66), who won the gold medal.



However, it was disappointing to lose 7th place in 22.33 in the first 50m.



Miresi was the first to finish the race with a time of 45.57.



USA's Ryan Held took the silver medal in 45.63, 0.06 seconds behind Miresi, and Canada's Joshua Riendo Edwards took the bronze in 45.82.



With this match, Seon-Woo Hwang finished his last and first World Championships in high school.



Hwang Seon-woo won his first major championship with a record of 1:41.60 in the 200m freestyle in this event, and became the first Korean athlete to win a gold medal in the short course world championships in five years since Park Tae-hwan, who won three medals in 2016.



In addition, he set four new Korean records in the 100m freestyle, following the 100m individual medley (52.13), the 50m freestyle (27.72), and the 200m relay (1:28.56) team event.



The 100m freestyle event in which Hwang Seon-woo participated was the last competition of the Korean team.



Previously, in the women's 200m relay qualifying round, Jung So-eun, Kim Seo-young, Ha Ha-kyung, and Yoo Ji-won continued the race in that order, finishing last at 1:43.81 among the 11 participating nations.



National team captain Baek Su-yeon finished 27th in the women's 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:26.46.



Both men and women failed to pass the preliminary rounds in the 400m medley relay, in which 4 people from a team competed for ranking by swimming 100m each in the order of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle.



The Korean team will be on their way home right away and will enter the country through Incheon International Airport on the afternoon of the 22nd and will go into self-quarantine for 10 days.



(Photo = Yonhap News)