World champion Hwang Sunwoo is one of four South Korean swimmers headed to Australia for specialized training this month.
Along with Lee Ho-jun, Kim Woomin and Yang Jaehoon, Hwang will head to Brisbane, Australia on February 8th to begin a 35-day training stint under Richard Scarce. Scarce is the former coach of Aussie aces Cameron McEvoy and Elijah Winnington. McEvoy now trains at Somerville while Winnington is under Dean Boxall at St. Peters Western.
The aforementioned South Korean foursome comprises the record-breaking men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. The team captured a 6th place finish at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and 4th place at the 2022 Short Course World Championships, setting new national standards over each course.
South Korea now turns its eyes to the Asian Games on the calendar for September. The best men’s 4x200m freestyle relay result achieved by the nation was represented by a silver medal captured in 1994. As such, with the promise of Hwang and the others, the swimming federation has a solid goal of landing this relay on the podium in Hangzhou, with this Aussie training camp serving as extra preparation.
On training the Koreans, Scarce says, “I’m looking forward to a special experience ahead with four very impressive players at the Short Course World Championships in Melbourne.
“We will do our best together so that Korean swimming, which has recently been attracting attention, can prove sufficient competitiveness on the international stage in the future.” (SPOTVNEWS)
Before the Asian Games, we’ll see the athletes compete at the Korean Swimming Championships beginning on March 25th.
This isn’t the first time that Korea has tapped into coaching talent down under. Last June Hwang paired up with storied coach Ian Pope. Pope is the former coach of Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club and has served on the 2000 and 2008 Australian Olympic team coaching staffs, as well as 6 World Championships teams. Former swimmers under Pope’s tutelage include Michael Klim, Grant Hackett and Giaan Rooney.
Despite their good results last year, they still look set to lose to China and Japan, even if they have hwang.Hwang is the only one who is strong in Korea.Other athletes failed to play a strong role, and hwang’s relay performance was far inferior to that of the individual events.
Maybe in Asian Games:
Japan 7:04, China 7:05 and South Korea 7:06
Awesome
Seems like there is plenty of excitement at the National Event Camp.
The next 2 years are going to be special.