South Korean swimmer Hwang Sun-woo finished fourth in the men's 200-meter freestyle at the world championships in Singapore on Tuesday, coming up short of his fourth consecutive medal in his main event.
Hwang hit the pad in 1:44.72 to miss out on the podium at the World Aquatics Championships at the World Aquatics Championships Arena in Singapore.
David Popovici of Romania, the 2022 champ, won his second career world title in 1:43.53, and Luke Hobson of the United States took the silver in 1:43.84.
Tatsuya Murasa, an 18-year-old from Japan, beat Hwang for the bronze medal by clocking 1:44.54.
Hwang, swimming in Lane 5 as the second-fastest qualifier from the semifinals, had the second-fastest reaction time with 0.62 second, just behind Murasa's 0.60. At the halfway point, Hobson was in the lead at 50.07 seconds, followed by Popovici (50.58) and Hwang (50.76).
Murasa, who touched the 100m mark in 51.07 seconds, moved ahead of Hwang at the 150m mark and then covered the final 50m in 26.66 seconds to hold off the South Korean by 0.18 at the end.
Hwang came home in 26.83 seconds, but his split for the 100m-150m stretch was even worse at 27.13 seconds -- the second-slowest time among the eight finalists.
Hwang arrived in Singapore as the only South Korean swimmer to win an individual medal at three consecutive world championships, and that streak ended Tuesday.
Hwang won the 200m freestyle silver in 2022 in Budapest and followed that up with bronze in the same event a year later in Fukuoka, Japan.
Last year, Hwang soared to his first career world title in Doha but failed to defend that crown Tuesday.
Hwang was seeking a measure of personal redemption in Singapore. This is Hwang's first international competition since he missed out on the 200m freestyle final at the Paris Olympics last summer. As the reigning world champion, Hwang went into Paris as a strong medal contender in the 200m freestyle, but he crashed out of the semifinals.
Hwang will now join Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon and Kim Young-beom in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay Friday.
Hwang, Lee, Kim Woo-min and Yang Jae-hoon won silver in this relay event last year for South Korea's first-ever world championships medal in a relay. (Yonhap)
