Hwang Sun-woo received 57 out of 63 votes in the MVP press corps vote on the 19th, the last day of the competition, beating Suyeong Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Provincial Office, 2 votes) by an overwhelming margin to win the 104th Jeonnam National Sports Festival MVP. He also received 5 million won in prize money.
Hwang Sun-woo was reduced to under-19 (high school) in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and won his first MVP in 2021, and won four gold medals last year to win MVP for the second consecutive year.
And this year, he won gold medals in all five events, including the men’s 800m relay on the 15th, the 200m freestyle on the 16th, the 400m relay on the 17th, the 100m freestyle on the 18th, and the 400m medley relay on the 19th, building a golden tower of MVP for the third consecutive year.
The Korea Sports and Olympic Committee has been MVP since the 61st tournament in 1980, and no player has won three consecutive MVPs in more than 40 years. There are only a few players who have won MVPs for two years in a row.
Prior to Hwang Sun-woo, only two were weightlifting Kim Tae-hyun (1998-1999) and swimming Park Tae-hwan (2007-2008). 스포츠토토
Park Tae-hwan won a total of five MVPs (2005, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2017), the most ever, but unfortunately missed the record of winning back-to-back medals by giving up the MVP to Kim Deok-hyun, who set a new Korean record in the 2006 track and field triple jump.
Hwang Sun-woo has won three MVPs, approaching Park Tae-hwan’s record for most awards. If Hwang Sun-woo, who is 20 years old, receives three more MVPs for the National Sports Festival in the future, he will break the record for the most awards ever.
Hwang Sun-woo overcame his worst physical condition in this tournament and won five gold medals, adding meaning.
On the 12th, the day before the opening day, he visited a restaurant in Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, where the competition was held with his teammates, and suffered from fever and stomachache due to eating raw food incorrectly.
Due to symptoms of food poisoning, he lost about 5kg in two days. Hwang Sun-woo won gold medals in all five events he participated in overcoming his condition problems.
Hwang Sun-woo was expected to compete for MVP with his teammate and three-time champion at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, Kim Woo-min, a swimming men’s freestyle medium- and long-distance star, but he won the MVP easily as Kim Woo-min did not compete in the 400m medley relay, his last event after winning four gold medals.
Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Seo-young (Gyeongbuk Provincial Government), Heo Yeon-kyung (Bangsan High School), and Choi Kang-in (Yulgok High School) in men’s high school diving, are the four players who won five gold medals in this competition.
Heo Yeon-kyung, a five-time high school champion, also set a new Korean record in the women’s 50m freestyle, but her competitiveness fell behind Hwang Sun-woo, who won five gold medals in the general category.
Hwang Sun-woo is the ace of Korean swimming after Park Tae-hwan. He set a new Asian record in the men’s 100-meter freestyle semifinal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and became the first Korean to reach the final of the event.
Since then, he has succeeded in winning medals in the men’s 200m freestyle for two consecutive times at the 2022 and this year’s World Championships, becoming a sign of Korean swimming.
Hwang Sun-woo, who confirmed his world competitiveness, won a total of six medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games last month, including two gold medals (200m in freestyle, 800m in men’s relay), two silver medals (200m in men’s medley relay, 400m in men’s relay), and two bronze medals (100m in freestyle, 400m in mixed medley relay).