South Korean women’s swimming sensation Kim Seo-young (29, North Gyeongsang Province) failed to qualify for the 400m individual medley final at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.
Kim clocked 4:45.04 in the women’s 400m individual medley preliminaries at the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships on Tuesday at Fukuoka Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall in Fukuoka, Japan.
Kim finished first in heat two but failed to qualify for the finals, finishing 19th out of 35 swimmers. There are no heats in the 400m individual medley, with the top eight swimmers qualifying for the finals. Eighth-placed Katie Shanahan (GBR) qualified in 4:39.46.
Kim, who has struggled with poor form in this event, was nearly 10 seconds slower than her own Korean record of 4:35.93.
This completes Kim’s individual events at the Games.
Earlier in the day, Kim made the semifinals of the women’s 200m individual medley, but finished 13th in 2:12.91, missing out on her fourth consecutive final in the event.
Kim has reached three consecutive World Championship finals in the event – Budapest 2017, Gwangju 2019 and Budapest 2022. She is the first South Korean athlete to reach three consecutive finals in the event.
The medley relay is an event in which swimmers compete in the following strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. It is a competition for all-around swimmers as they need to be good at all strokes to perform well.
In this event, Kim, who was in lane 5 of heat 2, was in the middle of the pack until the breaststroke, when she unleashed an explosive spurt in the final freestyle leg that put her in front of her competitors, and she was the first to hit the touchpad.
However, after the third heat, Kim slipped to 10th place and was eliminated from the competition. After the final Group 4 match, 스포츠토토 she was in 19th place after all qualifying matches were completed.