South Korean swimming hero Hwang Sun-woo sprinted to gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the Asian Games in China on Wednesday.
Hwang broke his own national record with a time of 1:44.40 to win his second gold medal at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena in Hangzhou, China. He helped South Korea to gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay Monday. Hwang’s time was also the new Asian Games record.
Hwang’s teammate, Lee Ho-joon, grabbed bronze at 1:45.56. Pan Zhanle of China took silver in 1:45.28.
Hwang led the race wire to wire. He touched the 50m pad in 24.33 seconds, slightly ahead of Pan, with Lee in third place. At the halfway mark, Hwang remained in the lead at 50.69 seconds, and Lee caught Pan for the silver medal position at 51.27.
It was Hwang and Lee out in front at the 150m turn. Hwang opened up a 0.9-second lead over Lee, and it was a race against the record books by that point.
Pan, the 100m freestyle champion here on Sunday, had a blistering final split of 25.99 seconds to move past Lee, but it wasn’t enough to deny Hwang his first individual Asian Games gold.
“I am so pleased to break my own record and reach the very top of the podium,” Hwang said. “And it’s also great to see Ho-joon win the bronze medal. It shows how far Korean swimming has come.”
Hwang had set the previous national record of 1:44.42 just two months ago while winning bronze at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
South Korean swimming legend Park Tae-hwan had owned the Asian Games record with 1:44.80, set in his gold medal race in Guangzhou, China, 13 years ago.
Park won three gold medals in both 2010 and 2006. Hwang is the first South Korean swimmer since Park to win multiple gold medals at a single Asiad.
Hwang was set to compete in the mixed 4x100m medley relay just about one hour after the end of his 200m freestyle race.
Lee had said after the morning’s heats that he would love to stand on the podium with Hwang, and his dream came true just hours later.
“Before the final, I thought it would be an honor just to be anywhere on the podium with him. Now that the race is over, I think it would have been even better to have won silver,” Lee said. “But at least I have one each of gold, silver and bronze medals here. That’s something positive.”
Lee joined Hwang for the 4x200m freestyle relay gold, and earned silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay Tuesday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency