King Woo-min'Kim Woo-min (24, Kangwon Provincial Government) won the men's 400m freestyle podium for the first time in a row at the World Championships.
Kim Woo-min hit the touchpad in the men's 400m freestyle final at the Singapore World Aquatic Championship Arena on the afternoon of the 27th with a time of 3:42.60, the third of the eight finalists.
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Lucas Martens of Germany ranked first with a time of 3:42.35 and Samuel Shorts of Australia ranked second with a time of 3:42.37 in 0.02 seconds.
Kim Woo-min advanced to the final in third place in the qualifying round and split the current in lane 5. It was fiercely contested by Lane 4 Shorts and Lane 5 Martens. He started the fastest with a time of 0,61 seconds, and passed the first 50 meters with a time of 25.05 seconds, second only to Mertens. After giving up second place to Shots in the 100m section, he ran a powerful race to run the last 50m section in 27.62 seconds, but finished third in 0.23 seconds.
Park Tae-hwan set his personal best at 3:41:53, when he won the gold medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and Kim's personal best at 3:42:42, when he won the gold medal at the third event of the Mare Nostrum Series in June last year. Kim declared his bid for the world championship for the fifth time in his career.
Kim Woo-min, who won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics after winning the title for the first time in 13 years since Park Tae-hwan at the Doha World Championships (3:42.71) last year, won a brilliant bronze medal in the first race and the first two consecutive medals in the event.
Hwang Sun-woo (22, Kangwon Provincial Government) won three consecutive medals in the main 200m freestyle event, including Budapest silver in 2022, Fukuoka bronze in 2023, and Doha gold in 2024, and Kim Woo-min is the first to win back-to-back medals in the 400m freestyle event, although Park Tae-hwan once won three medals, including two gold medals in Melbourne in 2007 and Shanghai in 2011 and one bronze in the 200m freestyle in Melbourne.
Kim Woo-min showed his unwavering presence on the big stage.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
