Hwang Seon-woo (19, Gangwon Provincial Office) is predicted to compete with David Popovich (18, Romania), the current strongest player, to win the 2022 FINA Short Course (25m) World Championships Freestyle 200m.
The event will be held at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Center in Australia until the 18th. The 200m preliminaries and finals, in which Hwang Seon-woo is the defending champion, are on the last day. Comprehensive competitions such as the Asian Games and the Olympics are held only in the long course (50m).
The Spanish daily Marca said, “The superiority that Popovich showed gives more opportunities to win”, but also picked Hwang Seon-woo as “the biggest competitor in the 200m short course world championships”.
‘Marca’ is one of the four major sports newspapers in Spain. ▲Popovich ▲Hwang Seon-woo ▲Kyle Chalmers (24, Australia) ▲Matthew Seitz (19, South Africa) were tied to the semifinals of the 200m event.
Chalmers won two 200m silver medals in the 2021 FINA World Cup series. Seitz is a bronze medalist in the 200 yards (about 183 m) at the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships. 안전놀이터
Hwang Seon-woo was the world’s best prospect in the 200m until last year. The time of 1 minute 45.92 in the national team selection in November 2020, 1 minute 44.96 seconds in the national team selection in May 2021, and 1 minute 44.62 in the Tokyo Olympic qualifying round are all new junior records at the time.
However, Popovich stood tall as the world’s number one player by beating out with a time of 1:44:68 at the Tokyo Olympics, 1:43:21 at the 2022 World Championships, and 1:42:97 at the 2022 European Championships (a junior world record).
Hwang Seon-woo is also a silver medalist in the 200m long course world championships this year. ‘Marca’ said, “The beginning of the race will be similar to Popovich,” and predicted that the gold medalist of the short course world championships would be hidden after the middle of the race.
The American swimming media ‘Swim Swarm’ also said, “The Romanian sports sensation Popovic has risen to a position at least one step higher than all other players,” but “Before he became a flawless superstar, he was mentioned side by side with Hwang Seon-woo in the 200m. I will not be satisfied with a second player,” he said, paying attention to the competition between the two in this tournament.