Kim Min-seop (Dokdo Sports Team) caused a stir to beat world record holder Krishtov Milak (Hungary) in the 200m butterfly.
On the second day of the second round of the Mare Nostrum Series held in Barcelona, Spain on the 31st (Korea Standard Time), Korea produced three champions, including Kim Min-seop in the men’s 200-meter butterfly, Kim Woo-min in the 400-meter freestyle, and Lee Ju-ho in the 200-meter backstroke.
Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon Provincial Government) finished second behind David Popovich (Romania) by 0.02 seconds in the 100m freestyle.
Kim Min-seop was the player who surprised Korean swimming the most on the day of the good news.
Kim Min-seop was the first to hit the touchpad in the men’s 200-meter butterfly final with a time of 1:55:47.
Although he fell short of the Korean record of 1:54:95 set in the national team selection match in March, he finished the race faster than Milak, the world record holder.
Milak was 1:55:67, 0.20 seconds slower than Kim Min-seop.
Milak was crowned the 200m butterfly champion at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2019 Gwangju and 2022 World Championships in Budapest.
He held both the world record (1:50:34) and the Olympic record (1:51:25).
Although Milak also participated in the 100m freestyle on this day and felt a physical burden, Kim Min-seop wore a pleasing medal that he “beat the world record holder” ahead of his participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kim Min-seop, who won the silver medal in the men’s 400m individual medley with a time of 4:15.62 the previous day, decorated his second medal of the competition with gold.
Kim Woo-min, who is aiming to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, also won the 400-meter freestyle in the main event.
Kim Woo-min finished with a time of 3:44.81 in the final, beating second-place Marco de Tulio of Italy with a time of 3:47.73.
At the 2024 Doha World Championships in February, Kim set a personal best of 3:42.71 to become the men’s 400-meter freestyle champion.
Kim Woo-min, who continued strong training at Jincheon Training Center in Australia and Korea, won the gold medal even after participating in this tournament without going through a “controller” that properly mixes rest and training to shorten the record.
Lee Ju-ho also won the men’s 200m backstroke with a time of 1:56.73.
In second place was Hidekazu Takehara of Japan with a time of 1:57:28.
Lee Ju-ho washed away the disappointment of finishing second (54:03) in the 100m backstroke the previous day with a gold medal in the 200m backstroke in the main event. 밤알바
Hwang Sun-woo lost to Popovich for the second consecutive day.
In the 100m freestyle final, Hwang Sun-woo finished second with a time of 48.51 seconds, 0.02 seconds behind Popovich, who took a touchpad at 48.49.
Kazuhiro Matsumoto of Japan came in third with a time of 48.79 seconds.
Hwang also finished second in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:45:68 on the previous day. The winner was Popovich, who finished the race with a time of 1:44:74.
Hwang Sun-woo and Popovich will face off again in the third round of the Marenostrum series in Monaco on June 2-3.
