(FUKUOKA=Yonhap) By Lee Dae-ho Reporter = Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon-do Province), the powerful swimmer who cuts through the waters of Fukuoka, is just 20 years old this year.”I’m in my early 20s, and I need to make records, so I will train hard and not fall behind,” he said at the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships .It’s more than a Korean record in the 200-meter freestyle, it’s more than becoming the first South Korean to win back-to-back medals in the long course (50-meter) world championships. Hwang touched the touchpad in 1:44.42 to win bronze in the 200-meter business freestyle final at the orld Championships at Fukuoka Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall in Fukuoka, Japan, on Friday. His time was 0.05 seconds better than the previous South Korean record (1:44.47) he set in the event at Budapest last year .In the men’s 200-meter freestyle, a swimmer needs only a time in the low-to-mid 1:44s to win Olympic gold. Since 2010, when full-body swimsuits were banned, only two men have broken 1:43 in the 200-meter freestyle, David Popovic (Romania) and Yannick Annel (France).Annel 카지노사이트킹 clocked 1:43.14 at the 2012 London Olympics, while Popovic won the final of last year’s World Championships in Budapest in 1:43.21 before posting a monster time of 1:42.97 at the European Championships in Rome in August .By the mid-1:44s, which is Hwang’s current mark, most athletes hit a wall.Hungry for a new record, Hwang shaved 0.05 seconds off his time in Fukuoka, as if squeezing water out of a dry towel. In the 200-meter freestyle, he confirmed his status as the “best in Asia With China’s ‘rising star’ Fan Zhanle crashing out in the semi-finals, Hwang was the only Asian swimmer in the 200m freestyle final at the World Championships alongside Lee Ho-joon (Daegu Metropolitan Government).It was a moment that boosted his chances of winning gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.The Fukuoka World Championships also revealed challenges.After swimming the 200-meter freestyle final on Friday, Hwang showed signs of physical exhaustion in the morning heats of the 100-meter freestyle and the afternoon semifinals.If his first goal at the Games was to break the Korean record in the 200-meter freestyle, his second was to medal in the medley relay, and his final goal was to break the Korean record of 47.56 in the 100-meter freestyle, which he set at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.”I’m impatient because I haven’t lowered my time in the 100-meter freestyle for more than two years,” said Hwang, who eventually touched the touchpad in the 100-meter freestyle semifinals in 48.08, just shy of the Korean record and his season-best 47.44 set in Gwangju in June.