2022 KOREAN NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL
- October 8th – October 13th
- Ulsan, South Korea
- LCM (50m)
- Results
With the final day of the 2022 Korean National Sports Festival now complete, Hwang Sunwoo has been crowned the overall MVP of the competition. The 19-year-old freestyle ace earned nearly 85% of the media votes to take home his second consecutive MVP honor after having earned the award last year.
Hwang’s recognition makes him just the second man to have earned MVP status two years in a row since Park Tae Hwan accomplished the feat in 2007/2008. Park, a 4-time Olympic medalist, earned 5 National Sports Festival MVP awards over the course of his career.
As for Hwang, the reigning 2022 World Championships silver medalist won the men’s 200m free (1:44.67) and 100m free (47.78) here in Ulsan. He also topped the podium as a member of the Gwangon Provincial Office’s 400m free and 800m free relay teams to give Hwang 4 golds in all.
He aimed for a repeat of 5 gold medals from the 2021 edition of the competition, however, his team’s medley relay was disqualified tonight for an early takeover on the breaststroke leg.
Hwang is coming off of altitude training where the Korean joined a German contingent in Erzurum, Turkey last month. He says he is looking forward to the Korean National Team Selection Meet coming up in November, as well as the FINA Short Course World Championships slated for Melbourne, Australia in December.
At the 2021 edition of the FINA Short Course World Championships, Hwang became the world champion in the men’s 200m freestyle. He clocked a speedy time of 1:41.60 to narrowly defeat Russian Swimming Federation’s Aleksandr Shchegolev (1:41.63) and Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys (1:41.73).