2022 KOREAN NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL
- October 8th – October 13th
- Ulsan, South Korea
- LCM (50m)
- Results
After putting on a show in the men’s 200m freestyle yesterday, 19-year-old World Championships silver medalist Hwang Sunwoo followed up with another gold.
Competing on day five of the 2022 Korean National Sports Festival, Hwang clocked a time of 47.78 to top the men’s 100m freestyle podium.
Hwang surged to the top seed out of the heats with a morning effort of 48.36, a time that already cracked the longstanding meet record of 48.66 set by Olympic medalist Park Tae Hwan in 2016. The freestyle ace then hacked another .58 off of that result to check in with his gold medal-worthy 47.78.
Hwang owns the Korean national record in this 100m free event with the 47.56 Asian Record he produced in the semi-finals at the 2020 Olympic Games. He ultimately finished 5th with a final time of 47.82. As such, his time at this meet falls within .22 of his own lifetime best.
Post-race, Hwang said he was satisfied with his swim, one which represented his fourth gold at this Festival after already having won the 200m free (1:44.67), as well as the 400m and 800m free relays. Should his Gwangon Provincial Office squad top the men’s medley relay podium tomorrow, Hwang will capture 5 golds, matching his total from last year’s competition.
Also making some noise at the festival was Kim Woomin, who doubled up on his 1500m freestyle victory from night one of the meet. Kim already hit a personal best of 14:54.25 in that grueling distance and followed suit by nearly hitting another PB in the 400m free.
Stopping the clock in 3:45.65, Kim beat the field by over 6 seconds, with Hojun Lee getting to the wall behind him in 3:52.54 for silver.
Kim’s career-quickest in this 4free event remains at the 3:45.64 he produced at this summer’s World Championships. There in Budapest, the 21-year-old placed 6th overall, with his performance here falling just .01 outside of that result.
For the women, An Sehyeon got it done for gold in the 100m butterfly, registering a time of 58.62. Sehyeon owns the Korean record in this race with the 57.07 she put up at the 2017 World Championships. Her podium-topping result here established a new meet record in the event.
I saw on Instagram these guys training with Matt Magee and the oneflow team. Interesting to see if that partnership continues.
Hopefully he figures them out at the same time at worlds. A lot of talent from this young man
Damn he’s sweatin’ it out over there.
One comment, and this is not a critique at all, it’s fascinating to see how swimmers have such different strokes to achieve really fast times. For instance, Hwang’s head, as seen by the thumbnail, is entirely breaching the water and yet his stroke looks in such unison. Makes me wonder if his head lift is a result of his propulsion. I always try to follow the one goggle in the water rule, as I am sure is very widely taught, but this goes to show that sometimes you should go with whatever floats your boat.
Popovici and Hwang’s styles put them really high out of the water on the breathing/drive phase when they pull, a technique that doesn’t really go well with the usual straight-arm splash-and-dash style many bulkier swimmers have – makes sense since propelling your body ‘through the air’ is faster than in water. Put it together and you get the breakneck top-end yet elegant masterclasses of freestyle swimming these two are known for.
I completely agree with this point. I think that these techniques and the results we are seeing from there will cause some experimentation from other swimmers in the events. Dressel’s straight arm power works for him and Pop/Sunwoo’s top of surface recovery is clearly working for them. Very interesting.