South Korea’s men’s 400-meter medley relay team set a new national record and won silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
South Korea’s men’s medley relay team of Lee Ju-ho (28, Seogwipo City Hall), Choi Dong-yeol (24, Gangwon Provincial Office), Kim Young-beom (17, Gangwon Chego) and Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Provincial Office) set a new Korean record of 3:32.05 to finish second in the men’s 400-meter medley relay final at the Hangzhou Olympic Center swimming pool on Saturday at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games in Zhejiang, China.
In Asia, unbeaten China took the top spot with an Asian record of 3:27.01 (previously 3:29.00), followed by Japan in third place with 3:32.52.
China fielded the medley relay team of Xu Zhai, Qin Haiyang, Wang Changhao and Fan Zhanle.
Japan took to the water with Ryosuke Irie, Yuya Hinomoto, Katsuhiro Matsumoto, and Katsumi Nakamura.
China, the “Luxury Corps,” jumped out to an early lead.
South Korea and Japan battled for second place until the very end.
The race came down to the final seconds.
South Korea’s last runner, Hwang Sun-woo, who started 0.08 seconds behind Japan, clocked 47.63 for 100 meters. Japan’s final runner, Nakamura, clocked 48.16.
After winning the silver medal and breaking the Korean record, Hwang raised his arms and roared.
It’s been 13 years since South Korea won a medal in the men’s medley relay at an Asian Games since Guangzhou 2010, when they finished second.
Back then, the South Korean quartet of Park Sun-kwan, Choi Kyu-woong, Chung Doo-hee and Park Tae-hwan finished third in 3:38.30, behind China (3:34.01) and Japan (3:34.10), but were promoted to second after China was disqualified.
They were disqualified in Incheon in 2014 and finished fifth at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.
This time, South Korea took second place on “record” without anyone being disqualified.
Lee Ju-ho, Choi Dong-yeol, Kim Young-beom and Hwang Sun-woo shaved 2.20 seconds off the Korean record of 3:34.25 set at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka on July 30.
Hwang Sun-woo added a silver medal to his collection of gold (men’s 800-meter freestyle relay), silver and bronze (100-meter freestyle) medals at the event before starting his main event, the 200-meter freestyle.
He also won silver in the breaststroke with Cho Sung-jae (22-Goyang City Hall), Kim Ji-hoon (23-Daejeon Metropolitan Sports Association) and Lee Ho-joon (22-Daegu Metropolitan City Hall), who competed in the preliminaries.
Hwang and Lee will compete side-by-side in the 200-meter freestyle on Sunday. 파워볼게임