Hwang Sunwoo Leads Onslaught Of Korean Records In Doha

2021 FINA WORLD CUP STOP #3 – DOHA

• Thursday, October 21st – Saturday, October 23rd
• Hamad Aquatic Center, Doha, Qatar
• Prelims: 10 am local / 3 am ET
• Finals: 6 pm local / 11 am ET
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
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• Results

Day 1 of the 2021 FINA World Cup Series may have been on the quiet side with smaller fields diving into the Hamad Aquatic Center pool than in previous stops. But, the Korean squad making their circuit debut made some collective noise, downing 6 individual national records to kick off their campaign.

On the men’s side, two-time Olympic finalist Hwang Sunwoo tried the 100m IM on for size, clocking a new national record in the morning heats before dropping it down once again in the final.

Hwang posted a mark of 53.35 in the prelims to capture the 3rd seed before hacking off over a second to ultimately touch in a time of 52.30. That outing rendered him 3rd behind winner Daiya Seto of Japan and silver medalist Matt Sates of South Africa who touched in times of 51.56 and 51.74, respectively.

Hwang was actually in 1st place at the halfway point, splitting 23.65 to Seto’s 23.75. But he fell back a bit with a 2nd half split of 28.65, still enough to drop some major time in an event the 18-year-old hadn’t swum before today.

His result here is reminiscent of his recent long course meters 200 IM, whereby Hwang hit a PB of 1:58.04 in just his 2nd performance ever.

Joining Hwang on the record-setting siege were Lee Juho and Moon Jaekwon who each clocked new records in their respective disciplines of backstroke and breaststroke.

Lee got it done for 2back silver, tying Israel’s Yakov Toumarkin, in a time of 1:52.98, destroying the 1:59.48 he produced at the 2018 FINA Short Course World Championships.

As for Moon, the man clocked two records on the day, posting a mark of 57.78 in the 100m breast, whereby his 26.82 opening 50m registered a new Korean record in itself.

On the women’s side, both new Korean records came in freestyle, with Jeong Soeun producing a time of 24.47 for 6th place while Han Dakyung logged a mark of 4:05.90 to place fourth in tonight’s final.