Hwang Seon-woo, the hope of men's swimming, competed in the 'lucky semi-final' race in the 100m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships, but did not make it to the finals.
Hwang Seon-woo placed 4th in group 1 and 11th out of 16 swimmers with a time of 48.08 in the men's 100m freestyle semifinal at the 2022 International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships held at Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
Seon-woo Hwang, who finished the first 50m section in 23.37 seconds, split the current in 24.71 in the second half of the 50m section, but was unable to reach the final in which 8 people compete.
Hwang Seon-woo's best freestyle 100m record is 47.56 seconds in Korea and Asia, set in the semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last year.
David Popovich (Romania), 200m freestyle gold medalist, reached the final with a world junior record of 47.13.
For Hwang Seon-woo, the semi-final was like a 'bonus match'.
Initially, Hwang Seon-woo failed to advance to the semi-finals, where the top 16 players took part in the preliminary round with a time of 48.61.
However, before the semifinals, Caleb Dressel (USA), who placed 2nd place in the preliminary round, withdrew for 'medical reasons', and an opportunity came to Hwang Seon-woo.
Dressel is a world-class star who was selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the men's division for two consecutive competitions, winning 7 and 6 medals, respectively, at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest and Gwangju 2019.
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In the 100m freestyle, he won two consecutive gold medals and was aiming for a third straight victory this time, and he is the strongest in this event, winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
If the semi-finalists were absent, Hwang Seon-woo had to play a rematch (swim-off) with Jack Inserti (Australia), tied for 17th in the preliminary round, and win here to stand on the semi-final starting platform. was the situation in which the intention was expressed.
After that, Hwang Seon-woo, who was ranked first on the reserve list, was notified of his participation at the dormitory about two hours before the start of the game and moved to the stadium in a hurry.
Although not well prepared, Hwang Seon-woo was 0.53 faster than the qualifier in the semi-finals, but did not make it to the finals.
Hwang Seon-woo finished all the individual events schedule for this event with the end of the 100m freestyle.
Earlier, Hwang Seon-woo set a new Korean record of 1:44.47 in the 200m freestyle final and decorated his first medal in a long course major international in silver.
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Hwang Seon-woo was the second Korean athlete to win a medal in the management event of the Long Course World Championship after Park Tae-hwan (two gold medals and one bronze medal).
Hwang Seon-woo became the first Korean management athlete to win a medal in 11 years after Park Tae-hwan, who won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle event in Shanghai, China in 2011.
Hwang Seon-woo is scheduled to compete in the 800m relay event on the afternoon of the 23rd.
Eunji Lee, who participated in the women's 50m backstroke semifinal, took the touchpad in 28.26 seconds, placing 8th in group 2 and 15th overall.
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Eunji Lee, who advanced to the semi-finals in 15th place out of 39 people in the preliminary round with a time of 28.38, reduced her personal best record (28.36) set at the national selection contest in March by 0.1 seconds, but was unable to raise her rank further.
The Korean record for this event is 28.17, set in 2016 by Yoo Hyun-ji, who was a member of the Jeonbuk Athletic Association.
If Eunji Lee is in the 8th place, she will be able to compete in the women's 50m backstroke final at the World Championships for the first time in 17 years for a Korean athlete since Nam Eun Lee (8th place) at the 2005 Montreal Games in Canada.
Eunji Lee also reached the semi-finals in the 100m backstroke in this event, where she placed 11th.
(Photo = Getty Image Korea, provided by the Korea Swimming Federation, Yonhap News)