"The Future of Women's Backstroke" Kim Seung-won (15, Yong In Goo-jung) set a new competition record in the women's 50m backstroke at the World Junior Swimming Championships.
Kim Seung-won took 27.77 seconds in the 50-meter semi-final of the World Junior Swimming Championships held in Autopeni, Romania on the 23rd (Korea time) and proudly ranked first among the 16 athletes in the final stage where the top eight players advance. In the preliminary round, Kim Seung-won, who reached the semi-finals (28:19) in the second place among the 90 strongest junior backstroke players in the world, split the current in the semi-finals on the 4th lane of Group 1. At 27:77, he beat Russia's Milama Stefanova (16) and China's Liziawei (14) to take the touchpad as first place. In the second group of the semi-final, only British Bliss Kins ranked first with 27.91 seconds, Australia's Ansley Trotter ranked second with 27.94 seconds, and South Africa's Jessica Thompson ranked first to third with 27.98 seconds and reached the final round with 27 seconds.
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| Sweeper Kim Seung-won, a middle school girl who is surprised after her first 50m backstroke last year. Photo = Yonhap News |
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| photo courtesy of the Korea Swimming Federation |
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| Kim Bum-joon, chairman of the Gyeonggi Swimming Federation (right), delivers a citation from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to 15-year-old Bae Young ace Kim Seung-won. Source = Gyeonggi-do Swimming Federation |
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Kim broke the junior world championship record by 0.06 seconds behind his own Korean record (27.71). She will try to win her first medal at the Junior World Championships in Lane 4 of the final race on the 24th. Only Kins, who won the European Junior Championship with 27.79 seconds in the European Junior World Championship on July 2, is the most likely competitor.
15-year-old Kim Seung-won is the future of Korean women's swimming. Alpha Girl, a former president of the entire elementary school, who is good at studying and athletic, and Kim Seung-won, who has clearly revealed his dreams and thoughts in interviews, are growing stormily by gaining experience on big stages such as the World Championships. In March last year, when he was a freshman in middle school, Kim Seung-won rewrote the Korean record for the event in 28 seconds, beating all his seniors in the 50m backstroke at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and in May of the same year, he broke the 28-second barrier with 27.84 seconds at the National Youth Sports Festival (four gold medals), before hitting another 27.71 seconds in 10 months at the Singapore World Championship trials this year. In March, he received a commendation from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and was the youngest member of the South Korean team to compete at the Singapore World Championships last month and made the semi-final stage in all of his main events, including 50m backstroke (27.95 seconds) and 100m backstroke (1 minute 00:54 seconds). Women's backstroke has become one of the most anticipated events ahead of next year's Aichi and Nagoya Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics amid fierce competition with senior Lee Eun-ji (Sejong University, Gangwon-do Sports Council), who won two bronze medals in the 100-200m backstroke at the Reinrur Universiade Games in Germany.
Kim Seung-won, who proudly demonstrated his potential on the world championship stage for the first time in his life, is imprinting a clear presence with a new tournament record in the junior world championships, European and Australian aces who participated immediately. Kim Seung-won, who missed the podium at 1:00:59 and 5th place in the 100m backstroke preliminaries on the 21st, will try for his first medal at the Junior World Championships on the 24th after recording 1 minute 00:32 seconds, 1st overall, 46, and 5th place in the semifinals.
Reporter Jeon Young-ji sky4us@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
