Hwang Sun-woo (left) on June 20 poses for a photo at the awards ceremony after claiming the silver medal in the men's s 200-m freestyle at this year's FINA World Championships, along with gold medalist David Popovici from Romania (middle) and bronze medalist Tom Dean from the U.K. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Hayeon and Lee Jihae

Hwang Sun-woo is the first Korean to earn a silver medal in the men's 200-m freestyle in the world swimming championships.

At Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary, the swimmer on June 20 had a time of 1:44.47 in the final to win second place at the FINA World Championships.

This time is 0.15 seconds faster than what Hwang posted (1:44.62) in the preliminaries of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, thus setting a Korean record.

Hwang was in the third lane and got off to a good start, taking off the earliest at 0.61 seconds.

He was in third to fourth place through 150 m, and saw explosive acceleration in the last 50 m to finish second.

The gold went to David Popovici from Romania (1:43.21) and the bronze to Tom Dean from the U.K. (1:44.98).

Hwang is the first Korean to earn a medal in the world championships since 2011, when Park Tae-hwan won the gold in the men's 400-m freestyle in Shanghai, China. Hwang's silver is also Korea's first in the men's 200-m freestyle since 2007, when Park took bronze in Melbourne, Australia.

hayeounk8@korea.kr