Hwang Sun-woo faces off against his 'rival'

Popovich for the first time in a year Management team training in Europe

Korean swimming star Hwang Seon-woo (Gangwon Provincial Office) will face rival David Popovic (Romania) for the first time in a year.

The Korea Swimming Federation announced on the 18th, “The swimming team, which is challenging its best ever performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, will conduct field training in Europe.”

National team members who qualified for individual events at the Paris Olympics, including Hwang Seon-woo, Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Provincial Office), Lee Joo-ho (Seogwipo City Hall), and Kim Seo-young (Gyeongbuk Provincial Office), will leave for Europe on the 22nd. A total of 12 athletes, including those aiming to compete in the men's 800m relay, are heading to Europe.

They are tempered in Spain and Monaco.

After a week of training in Spain to adjust to jet lag, he will participate in the second competition of the Mare Nostrum series held in Barcelona on the 29th and 30th. Afterwards, they will move to Monaco and participate in the third competition on June 1-2.

Sunwoo Hwang will compete in the 100m and 200m freestyle in the 2nd and 3rd Mare Nostrum competitions.

Rival Popovich is also expected to race in the same event. It has been about a year since the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships in July 2023 that Hwang Sun-woo and Popovich face off. At the Paris Olympics, Hwang Sun-woo and Popovich are expected to compete in the 100m and 200m freestyle. The match against rival Popovich is a good opportunity for Hwang Sun-woo to check his training results so far. Kim Woo-min breaks the water in his main event, the men's 400m freestyle. Kim Seo-young will compete in the women's 200m individual medley, and Ji Yu-chan (Daegu Metropolitan City Hall) will compete in the men's 50m freestyle. An official from the Korea Aquatics Federation said, “After the Paris Olympics national team selection event in March, both the athletes who left for training in Australia and the athletes who sweated hard in Jincheon continued to train at high intensity without rest,” adding, “The most important stage is the Paris Olympics. “The goal is to check race management and practical sense at this Mare Nostrum competition,” he explained. The swimming federation plans to finalize the men's 800m relay race at the Paris Olympics through this training camp. In the men's 200m freestyle final at the national team selection event last March, Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, and Lee Ho-jun (Jeju City Hall) ranked 1st to 3rd. Hwang Seon-woo recorded 1 minute 44.90 seconds, Kim Woo-min recorded 1 minute 45.68 seconds, and Lee Ho-jun recorded 1 minute 46.43 seconds. At the time, the federation had not confirmed the fourth English character. As the goal is to win the first team medal in Olympic history in the 800m relay, it is believed that at least four athletes need to record a time of 1 minute and 46 seconds in the 200m freestyle. Except for Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, and Lee Ho-jun, no player recorded a record of 1 minute and 46 seconds. The swimming federation encouraged competition by allowing Kim Young-hyun (Anyang City Hall), Lee Yu-yeon (Goyang City Hall), and Yang Jae-hoon (Gangwon Provincial Office), who were ranked 4th to 6th at the time, to enter the Jincheon Athletes' Village. The swimming federation said, “According to the decision of the Performance Improvement Committee, if Kim Young-hyun, Lee Yu-yeon, and Yang Jae-hoon enter the 1 minute 45 second zone during this training period, all three will be sent to the Paris Olympics.” If there are multiple athletes with records under 46.50 minutes, only the top two will be sent. “If all three are over 1 minute and 47 seconds, only Kim Young-hyun, who placed fourth in the selection competition, will participate in the Paris Olympics,” he explained.  고스톱사이트