Choi Hye-ra Ranks First with New Meet Record

Choi Hye-ra (16, Seoul Physical Education High School), the rising star of women’s swimming, ranked first at the 79th Dong-A Swimming Competition with a new meet record.

Choi, who won a silver medal at the Doha Asian Games last year, won the girls’ high school division 100 meter butterfly stroke final held on April 19 at Munsu Swimming Pool, Ulsan, with a record of 1 minute 00.97 seconds. She beat the record her rival Shin Hae-in (18, Bukwon Girls’ High School) set last year (1 minute 01.93 seconds). Shin broke her own record as well this year at 1 minute 01.52 seconds, but took second place.

Choi began swimming in kindergarten when she was six, and, with a competitive spirit and strong stamina, became the youngest national representative in the history of Korean swimming when she was in the first year of Bangsan Middle School. She took the spotlight last year during the Asian Games when she beat Nakanoshi Yuko (26, Japan), who was ranked second in the world at the time, for the silver medal in the 200 meter butterfly. Although Yano Yurie (19, Japan), who was ranked fourth in the world, took the gold medal, Choi’s accomplishments were admirable.

Choi said, “I’m not in the best condition physically since I returned from the World Swimming Championships, but I’ve decided not to worry too much about this competition.” She gets up at 4:30 a.m. to train, and is covering an average of 10,000 to 15,000 meters per day.

Meanwhile, in the men’s 100 meter butterfly stroke, Jeong Doo-hee (23, Shinhan Bank) reaffirmed his status as number one, setting a new meet record at 54.38 seconds. Jeong, who is a national representative, beat his own record (54.86 seconds) which he set two years ago. He also holds the Korean record of 53.76 seconds.

In the boys’ high school 100 meter butterfly finals, Kim Dong-soo (18, Seoul Physical Education High School) came in first with a new meet record of 56.30 seconds (previous record 56.69 seconds). A total of eight meet records were set on the day.

The biggest name in Korean swimming, Park Tae-hwan (18, Kyunggi High School), will compete for the gold medal in the boys’ high school 800 meter relay on April 21, and the 400-meter medley relay on April 23, the last day of the competition.

bluesky@donga.com