After failing to win a medal in the 200-meter freestyle, Lee In-guk (Ansan Mayor’s Athletic Association) will try to win gold again in his main event, the 100-meter backstroke.
Lee touched the touchpad in fourth place with a time of 2:00.77 in the men’s 200m freestyle final at the Hangzhou 2022 Para Asian Games on Wednesday at the Olympic Sports Center Swimming Pool in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Gold was won by Tang Wai-luk (HKSAR – 1:56.76), who set a new meet record.
Lee In-gook (KOR – 2:00.03) qualified for the final with a first place finish in his heat. Lee also finished second in the final at 50m (27.09). However, he dropped to third in the 100 meters (57.69). He remained in third place through 150 meters (1:29.24), but was overtaken in the final 10 meters by Wong Hong-yin (Hong Kong – 2:00.64), who finished fourth by 0.12 seconds.
Lee is one of the best swimmers in Asia. This is especially true in the 100-meter backstroke, where he won gold at the 2014 Incheon Games. At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, he won gold in the 바카라 event, setting a new Paralympic record. Lee will be aiming for gold in his main event, the 100-meter backstroke.
“Most of the athletes performed well in the minor events,” said Bae Hyung-geun, head coach of the swimming team. “We will try to do well in the future as Ji-sung Choi (freestyle) and Lee In-guk (backstroke) will compete in the main events.”