Defending champion!Woo-min succeeded in the 400m freestyle at 3:45:54, the overwhelming first place, five consecutive world championships
Mar 28, 2025
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Kim Woo-min, a bronze medalist in Lee Jong-mok at the Paris Olympics and defending champion at the Doha World Championships, was the first of the six finalists to hit the touchpad with a time of 3:45:54 in the men's 400m freestyle final of the KB Financial Korea Swimming Championship held at Gimcheon Indoor Swimming Pool in Gyeongsangbuk-do on the afternoon of the 28th. It was an overwhelming race from the first 50 meters to the last 50 meters. Although he did not reach his best record of 42 seconds, he easily surpassed the A-standard record of 3:48.15 and succeeded in participating in the world championships for the fifth consecutive time since 2019.
Kim Woo-min made his first appearance at the 2019 Gwangju Games when he was 18, finishing 11th in the 400m freestyle, 6th at the 2022 Budapest Games and 5th at the 2023 Fukuoka Games. Since then, his skills have improved through coexistence and competition with Hwang Sun-woo, and in February last year, he won a surprise gold medal at the Doha World Championships, beating Australian ace Elijah Winnington and Germany's Lucas Mertens in 3:42.71.
He has won the gold medal in this event for the first time in 11 years since Park Tae-hwan won the Shanghai event in 2013. At last summer's Paris Olympics, where he competed as a 'world champion', he won the only bronze medal in the South Korean team after Mertens and Winnington with a time of 3:42.50. It was the first time in 12 years since Park Tae-hwan in 2012 that he won an Olympic medal. Kim Woo-min, who was somewhat sluggish in long-distance events such as the 1,500m freestyle and 800m freestyle in the aftermath of military training in January, competed with an outspoken spurt in his main event of 400m and got his ticket to the world championships without fail. Kim Woo-min "I finally won the World Championship ticket on the last day of the competition " I will work harder to get a good record for the rest of the year. I think that if we overcome this process better than the pressure of an Olympic medalist, we can overcome anything well" gave an imposing speech.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
