Hwang Sunwoo Posts 1:45.40 200 Free At Korean Swimming Championships
03/27/2025 09:38 AM
By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2025 KOREAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, March 23rd – Friday, March 28th
- Gimcheon, South Korea
- LCM (50m)
- Recap #1/Recap #2/Recap #3
- Results
The penultimate night of racing at the 2025 Korean National Championships brought us the first national records of the competition.
As we reported, 19-year-old Yoon Ji-hwan busted out a new lifetime best of 24.48 to top the men’s 50m backstroke podium, qualifying for this summer’s World Championships in the process.
The teen’s performance surpassed his own previous record of 24.67 to become the #2 performer in the world thus far this season.
Then, the women’s 50m back final saw 15-year-old Kim Seung-won crack a new Korean standard, logging 27.71 for the gold.
That cleared the ‘A’ cut of 28.22 and added the event to the 100m back in which Kim already qualified.
After missing out on Singapore qualification in the 100m free, Olympic finalist and world champion Hwang Sunwoo bounced back with a solid swim in the men’s 200m free.
21-year-old Hwang stopped the clock at a time of 1:45.4o to take the gold, comfortably clearing the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:46.70.
Hwang split 24.30/26.42/27.34/27.34 to get the job done and add his name to the nation’s roster for Singapore. His result was within range of his season-best, a world-leading mark of 1:45.03 put up at last October’s Korean National Sports Festival.
Behind Hwang tonight was Lee Ho-jun who fell just shy of the World Championships ‘A’ cut with a silver medal-worthy 1:46.83. He was also faster at the aforementioned festival, notching a season-best of 1:46.60 to rank #3 in the world.
Bronze this evening went to Kim Jun-woo in 1:48.23 and Kim Young-hyun notched 1:48.63 as the 4th place finisher.
National record holder Cho Sung-jae was in the water tonight, racing the men’s 200m breaststroke.
Cho stopped the clock at 2:09.81 as the sole swimmer of the field under the 2:10 barrier.
He split 1:02.37/1:07.34 to grab the gold and clear the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 2:10.32 needed for Singapore.
Cho owns the Korean standard in this event, courtesy of the 2:08.59 put on the books over four years ago.
The women’s 200m breast also had a World Championships qualifier.
Park Si-eun touched in a time of 2:25.77 to shimmy under the ‘A’ cut of 2:25.91 by just .14.
Her outing was just off the lifetime best of 2:25.46 turned in at this same meet last year.
In today’s prelims, 18-year-old Kim Youngbeom posted a time of 51.77 to take the top seed in the men’s 100m fly. That already matched the ‘A’ standard for Singapore and was only .12 away from his 51.65 national record.
Olympic medalist Kim Woomin registered a mark of 3:53.98 to lead the men’s 400m free heats. The 23-year-old will be chasing the qualifying standard of 3:48.15 in tomorrow’s main event.
South Korean World Championships Qualifiers Through Day 5
- Lee Eun-ji – women's 200m back
- Lee Ju-ho – men's 200m back, 100m back
- Choi Dongyeol – men's 100m breast
- Kim Youngbeom – men's 100m free
- Kim Seung-won – women's 100m back, 50m back
- Yoon Ji-hwan – men’s 50m back
- Park Si-eun – women’s 200m breast
- Hwang Sunwoo – men’s 200m free
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