▲ Men's 800m relay team.

From left: Lee Yoo-yeon, Lee Ho-jun, Hwang Seon-woo, Kim Woo-min


The men's 800m relay team, which advanced to the final in the team event at the World Championships for the first time in Korean swimming history with Hwang Seon-woo, proudly took the 6th place in the world by setting a new Korean record twice a day.



The Korean national team raced in the order of Hwang Seon-woo, Kim Woo-min, Lee Yoo-yeon, and Lee Ho-jun in the men's 800m relay at the 2022 FINA World Championships held at Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary today (24th) in the order of 7 minutes, 06.93. With a new record, it placed 6th out of 8 countries.



The 800m relay is a team event in which four swimmers from a team swim 200m each in freestyle to determine the rankings.



This is the first time that Korea has reached the final in the management event of the World Swimming Championships.



The national team, in the same order as in the final in the preliminary round, finished 4th out of 14 countries and advanced to the final with a new Korean record of 7:08.49.



At the national team selection contest held in May last year, the previous record set by the same member of 7 minutes 11 seconds 45 was shortened by 2 seconds 96 in just over a year.



Then in the finals, the Korean record was again reduced by 1 second 56.



Hwang Seon-woo, a silver medalist in the 200m freestyle who made the first swim in the final, finished first in the 200m section at 1:45.30, the fastest with a world record pace.



Kim Woo-min, who jumped into the water, also maintained the first place up to the 250m section, but later gave up the lead to the United States.



Kim Woo-min set a record of 1:46.57 and placed third in the race, with the third Youngjae Lee Yoo-yeon.



Lee Yoo-yeon recorded 1:48.28 in her 200m section, and passed the baton to the last swimmer, Ho-jun Lee, in 4th place.



Ho-Jun Lee set a new Korean record with a time of 1:46.78.



Although the final ranking was 6th, it was the best performance ever achieved by Korea in the management event of the World Aquatics Championships.



The United States took the gold medal at 7:00.24, and Australia (7:03.50), 3.26 behind the United States, took the silver medal.



The bronze medal went to England (7:04.00).



The difference between the UK and Korea was 2 seconds 93.



China (7:10.93) ranked 8th with a record 4 seconds behind Korea, and the dream of Korea's first gold medal in the Asian Games team event was also inflated.



Meanwhile, Eunji Lee placed 10th out of 16 in the women's 200m backstroke semifinal with a time of 2:10.48.



Eunji Lee, who finished 13th overall in the qualifiers at 2:13.30, improved both her record and standings in the semifinals, but she did not make it to the finals.



The Korean record for this event is 2:09.49, set by Dasol Lim of Asan City Hall in 2019.



Eunji Lee's best time was 2:09.72.



If I had set my own record, I could have reached the final in 7th place.



Eunji Lee finished her individual schedule by reaching the semifinals in all events in the 200m following the 50m (15th) and 100m (11th) backstroke.



Jung So-eun also finished tied for 14th in the women's 50m butterfly semifinal with a time of 26.32 and did not advance to the final.



So-eun Jeong, the South Korean record holder in this event (26.26), said that in her qualifying round she swept the tide in 26.40, she finished 13th and she joined the semi-finals.



(Photo = provided by the Korea Swimming Federation, Yonhap News)