South Korean star Hwang Sun-woo rewrites the men's 200m freestyle Asian record.

Xinhua News Agency, Seoul, October 21 – On the evening of the 20th, South Korean star swimmer Hwang Sun-woo clinched his fourth consecutive title in the men’s 200m freestyle final at the National Sports Festival held in Busan, South Korea, smashing the eight-year-old Asian record previously held by Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang with a time of 1 minute 43.92 seconds.

Sun Yang won three gold medals in the 400m, 1500m, and 200m freestyle events at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. In 2017, he claimed victory in the 200m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Budapest, clocking a time of 1:44.39 and setting a new Asian record.

Huang Xuanyou's previous personal best in the 200m freestyle was 1 minute 44.40 seconds, set at the Hangzhou Asian Games. This time, he improved his personal record by 0.48 seconds, becoming the first Asian athlete to break the 1 minute 44-second barrier in the event—and ranking seventh all-time in the discipline.

Twenty-two-year-old Huang Xuanyou shed tears of joy several times after the race: "This is one of the happiest moments of my life. Throughout my swimming career, I’ve always dreamed of breaking the 1 minute 44-second barrier in the 200-meter freestyle—and today, I finally did it."

Huang Xuanyou, a two-time Olympic athlete, has consistently delivered impressive performances at the World Championships. In the 200m freestyle event, he claimed silver at the 2022 Budapest Worlds, followed by a bronze medal at the 2023 Fukuoka Worlds, and then went on to clinch the gold at the 2024 Doha Worlds. Most recently, at this year's Singapore Worlds, he finished fourth.