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| Hwang, 19, represents South Korea's strongest medal hope among the country's 38 swimmers, artistic swimmers and divers competing at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest. (Photo from Swimswam) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SEOUL: South Korean teen swimming sensation Hwang Sun-woo will begin the pursuit of his first world championships medal on the weekend in Hungary. Hwang, 19, represents South Korea's strongest medal hope among the country's 38 swimmers, artistic swimmers and divers competing at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest.
The South Korean delegation arrived in the Hungarian capital Wednesday afternoon. The competition starts with preliminaries in artistic swimming on Friday, and swimming races will begin Saturday. Hwang is trying to become only the second South Korean swimmer to reach a podium at world championships and join four-time Olympic medalist Park Tae-hwan. Park captured his first world championships gold medal, in the 400m freestyle, in 2007. He picked up another 400m freestyle world title in 2011 and won bronze in the 200m freestyle that same year.
Hwang's main event is the 200m freestyle, where he holds the world junior record with 1:44.62. He established that mark in the final at last year's Tokyo Olympics, where he finished seventh in his major international breakthrough. Hwang later ranked fifth in the 100m freestyle, becoming the first Asian to even reach the final since 1956.
