{"id":473223,"date":"2021-05-16T20:42:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T03:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=473223"},"modified":"2021-05-16T20:42:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T03:42:43","slug":"hwang-sun-woo-lowers-world-junior-record-in-200-free-seven-set-south-korean-marks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/hwang-sun-woo-lowers-world-junior-record-in-200-free-seven-set-south-korean-marks\/","title":{"rendered":"Hwang Sun-Woo Lowers World Junior Record in 200 Free; Seven Set South Korean Marks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hwang Sun-Woo<\/strong> lowered his World Junior record in the men\u2019s 200 freestyle Saturday at the Korean Swimming Trials.<\/p>\n

Hwang clocked in at 1:44.96. It trounces the mark he set in November at 1:45.92<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a historically quick time, one that would\u2019ve won silver at the 2016 Olympics behind China\u2019s Sun Yang<\/strong> and at the World Championships in 2017 and 2019, both behind Sun. The margin to gold at the last world championships was just .03 (1:44.93 was the winning time.) Hwang has come so far, so fast that he didn\u2019t even qualify for those games in Gwanju. It\u2019s the seventh-fastest time in the world, according to FINA\u2019s rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The time is also .16 off the national record, set at the 2010 Asian Games<\/a> by four-time Olympic medalist Park Tae-Hwan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I was shocked that I finished in the 1:44 range,” Hwang told the Yonhap News Agency<\/a>. \u201cI felt my time would be pretty good because I had a good race. And once I saw the result on the board, I was pretty excited. I realized winning an Olympic medal won’t just be a pipe dream.”<\/p>\n

Hwang also lowered his national record in the 100 free, something he took from Hwan last year. He cut nearly a quarter second off that mark to go 48.04 Friday. The world junior mark<\/a> is 47.57, belonging to Andrei Minakov.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hwang\u2019s times complement a generally fast meet at the Jeju Sports Complex, which began last Thursday and runs through Monday. Seven South Korean records have been set, and swimmers have picked up two new Olympic automatic qualifying cuts. That makes 11 South Koreans who have qualified for an individual event.<\/p>\n