Kim Woo-min (23, Gangwon Provincial Office) is considered the next best thing to Park Tae-hwan, but now he’s looking to take on the world.
Kim touched the touchpad in 3:45.14 in heat six of the men’s 400-meter freestyle at the FINA World Aquatics Championships Doha 2024 at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Nov. 11.
His time was second in his heat and third overall out of 56 swimmers. Elijah Winnington (AUS) was first in 3:44.37 and Lukas Martens (GER) was second in 3:44.77. Kim punched his ticket to the final, which is awarded to the top eight qualifiers.
Winnington won gold at the Budapest 2022 World Championships, while Martens won silver in Budapest and bronze in Fukuoka last year, both in the men’s 400m freestyle. It’s a testament to how far Kim has come.
Starting the race in the last heat, heat 6, Kim posted times of 53.22, 57.22, 57.57, and 57.13 for the 100 meters. It was a race where he found some issues with his race management.
He ran a world record pace of 1:50.44 for 200 meters, but was unable to maintain it. After 250 meters, she faded a bit and finished second in her group. It was a race where I realized that I needed to reserve my strength, even if I had to adjust my pace a bit at the beginning of the race.
Kim considers Park Tae-hwan, the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist in the event, a role model and someone to aspire to. After winning three medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September last year, including the 400-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle relay, Kim has been making his mark on the world stage.
Until this meet, Kim had reached three consecutive 400m freestyle finals at the World Championships. At the 2022 World Championships, he finished sixth overall and sixth in the final, and last year he improved his final ranking by one spot to fifth.
“I came to Doha and competed locally, and the weather was good, and the pool and water temperature were fine,” Kim said through his agency, All That Sports. “I started as the first Korean finalist, and I think I had a good impact on the team. I’m really happy to move up to third place in the 400m race, which is 45 seconds, even though it’s a qualifying time, and I’ll show a lot of determination and fight in the final, so please support me.”
Expectations are high. Her personal best in the World Championships qualifiers has raised expectations for the medal hunt. Moreover, Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN), who won silver in this event at last year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, was eliminated after qualifying 17th. Kim Woo-min has even more to look forward to.
His times are getting better and better. He ran 3:45.64 in the 2022 World Championships final and 3:43.92 last year. With a third-place finish in the preliminaries already under his belt, it will be interesting to see how much more he can improve in the final.
Kim has her eyes set on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in July. His 토토사이트 performance at the World Championships, which is a precursor to the Olympics, will be a good indicator of his performance at the Games.
He will try to win a medal in the final at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Park is the only South Korean athlete to win a medal in this event. He won gold in Melbourne 2007 and Shanghai 2011.
South Korea’s top female swimmer Kim Seo-young (Gyeongbuk Provincial Office) also cruised. She finished 10th out of 25 swimmers in heat three of the women’s 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:13.85 to qualify for the semifinals, which are open to up to 16 swimmers.
Park Jung-won (Sungshim Girls’ High School) narrowly missed out on a semifinal berth in the women’s 100-meter butterfly prelims, finishing 16th in 59.32 seconds.
Hangzhou Asian Games men’s 50m butterfly gold medalist Baek In-chul (Busan Jung-gu Office) qualified for the semifinals in eighth place overall with a time of 23.34 seconds in the preliminaries of the event. Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medalist Choi Dong-yeol (Gangwon-do Province) also qualified for the semifinals in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:00.15, good for 14th place.