Korea’s Cho Sungjae Gets Real With 2:08.5 LCM 200 Breast Record

2020 KOREAN NATIONAL TRIALS

• Tuesday, November 17th – Friday, November 20th
• Gimcheon Indoor Swimming Pool
• LCM (50m)
• Selection Meet for National Training Center Squad
• Results

Just last month Cho Sungjae earned a new Korean national record in the men’s 200m breast, but the man was back in action with another record-breaking swim today.

While racing his pet event on day 1 of the 2020 Korean National Trials, Sungjae stopped the clock at a big-time 2:08.59 to not only take gold but easily overtake his previous Korean record of 2:09.30 from October’s Gimcheon National Swimming Competition.

Today’s 2:08.59 was comprised of splits of 30.55/33.10 (1:03.65); 33.21/31.73 (1:04.94) to knock a significant .71 off of his previous record.

Splits for Sungjae’s swim from last month included 29.79/32.94 (1:02.73); 33.54 /33.12 (1:06.66) revealing completely different race tactics this time around. Cho’s winning time tonight was more controlled and relatively evenly split compared to his nearly 4-second split differential on the previous record.

For his efforts, 19-year-old Sungjae reaped prize money of KRW 1,000,000 (~USD 1000) from the Korea Swimming Federation.

Additionally, this meet represents the qualifying opportunity to train at the National Training Centre. With his qualification, Sungjae said post-race, “Once I head to the National Training Center, I can fully concentrate on training (without having to worry about pools closing) and stay focused. My goal is clear; to win a medal in Tokyo.”

Sungjae now sits as the 4th fastest swimmer in the world this season, ahead of former world record holder Ippei Watanabe of Japan and Dutch ace Arno Kamminga.

Tomorrow we’re set to see Hwang Sun Woo enter the pool. The 17-year-old will look to improve his impressive 1:46.31 200m free/48.51 100m free double from October’s meet.

Additional Winners:

• Juho Lee snagged the gold in the men’s 100m back, hitting a time of 54.39 to fall just .22 off of his own national record.
• 14-year-old Eunji Lee was the women’s 100m back winner in 1:01.06.