An sets Korean record in 100-meter butterfly
Swimmer An Se-hyeon posted another Korean record in the women’s 200-meter butterfly at the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships, Thursday.
At Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, the 21-year-old clocked 2 minutes and 6.67 seconds in the 200-meter butterfly finals to finish fourth. This is the highest-ever finish achieved by a Korean woman at the swimming worlds. An also broke her country’s best record of 2:07.22, set by Choi Hye-ra in 2010.
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte clinched the gold medal with a time of 2:05.26, Franziska Hentke of Germany took the silver with 2:05.39 and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary came in third at 2:06.02.
Following Monday’s fifth-place finish in the 100-meter butterfly, the swimmer advanced to the finals, placing eighth with 2:07.82 in the semifinals.
With a new record in the 200-meter butterfly, now An has three butterfly Korean records in the 50-meter (26.30 seconds), 100-meter (57.07) and the 200-meter. She is also only the second Korean swimmer to advance to at least two final rounds at a single world championship event, following Park Tae-hwan.
Swimming in eighth, An rocketed out to lead at the 50-meter mark, clocking 28.20 seconds. But she fell back to fourth at the 100-meter mark and managed to maintain the rank to finish fourth overall.
An’s ongoing strong performance was astonishing news not only for Korean swimming fans but also for her Australian coach Michael Ball. It is known the coach ordered her to finish under 2:06.7, but she exceeded his expectation.
Given that she had a tattoo of the Olympic rings on her right inner arm, An obviously aims to win a medal in the next Summer Olympics. At last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, An failed to make the finals after placing 13th in the women’s 200-meter butterfly semifinals with a time of 2:08.69.
However, a year after the Olympics, her record has been dramatically improved thanks to her sponsor SK Telecom and her coach Ball, a former coach of Park Tae-hwan.
The sports division of SK Telecom, which also managed Park to win an Olympic gold medal in 2008, has been supporting her since 2015. With her own team, she has clinched four golds, two silvers and one bronze in local and international swimming events since the Rio Olympics.