Kim Su-ji, 3rd Place in Synchronized 3m with Lee Jae-kyung … World Championships 3rd Medal
The second Korean athlete to win three World Aquatics Championships medals, following Kim Su-ji and Park Tae-hwan.
Kim Su-ji (25, Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall) also won a bronze medal in the diving mixed synchro 3m springboard event, which she performed with Lee Jae-kyung (24, Incheon Metropolitan City Hall).
Su-ji, who became the first Korean diving World Aquatics Championship medalist in Gwangju in 2019,
won two medals in Doha this year, becoming the second Korean athlete to win three World Championship medals, following Park Tae-hwan.
Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung took third place with a total of 285.03 points from the first to fifth periods in the 2024 World Championships Diving Mixed Synchro 3m Springboard Final held at the Hamad Aquatic Center in Doha, Qatar on the 10th. 파워볼
Kim Su-ji, who won a bronze medal in the women’s 3m springboard, an official Olympic event,
this morning in Korean time, won another bronze medal.
It was the best Lunar New Year gift given to Korean diving.
Including the bronze medal in women’s 1m springboard at the Gwangju Games,
Kim Su-ji holds a total of three world championship medals.
Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung were also recorded as the first Korean athletes to win a World Championship medal in synchro events.
In the finals on this day, Su-ji Kim and Jae-kyung Lee performed 205B,
an exercise in which they jump backwards into the swimming pool with their backs to them,
grab their legs, and spin around for two and a half laps in the 4th stage, and rose to 3rd place.
They made a mistake in the 5152B movement with a twist in the 5th period,
but Grace Reed and Ross Haslam (Great Britain), who were competing for the rankings,
made an even bigger mistake, so Su-ji Kim and Jae-kyung Lee maintained their third place.
The British team’s total score was 278.28 points, 6.75 points lower than Korea’s.
At last year’s Fukuoka Games, Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung placed fourth in this event.
Kim Su-ji expected, “If I finish the mixed synchronized 3m competition in Doha without making any mistakes,
I think I will be able to go one step higher than last year.”
As he expected, Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung went up one step from last year and won bronze medals.
Until today, a total of four Korean athletes have won medals at the previous World Aquatics Championships.
Tae-hwan Park ranked first in the 400m freestyle and third in the 200m at the 2007 Melbourne Games,
and won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle in Shanghai in 2011.
Sunwoo Hwang (Gangwon Provincial Office) ranked second in Budapest in 2022 and third in Fukuoka in 2023 in the men’s 200m freestyle.
Following the women’s 1m springboard at the 2019 Gwangju Games,
Kim Su-ji won bronze medals in the women’s springboard and mixed synchro 3m springboard in Doha this year,
becoming the ‘Korean most medalist’ along with Park Tae-hwan.
Other than Su-ji Kim, no Korean female athlete has won a medal.
Although Jaekyung Lee is a mixed synchro event, he is the first Korean male diver to reach the podium at the World Championships.
Korean swimming’s previous World Championship medals increased to 8 (2 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze).
Kim Su-ji, who was diagnosed with torn left knee cartilage in December last year,
overcame the pain and achieved the feat of winning two medals in Doha.
Suji Kim also secured the right to participate in the women’s 3m springboard at the Paris Olympics.
Lee Jae-kyung, the ‘atmospheric plastic diver’, also had an unforgettable moment.
Jae-Kyung Lee competed in her first Asian Games in Hangzhou last year and won three medals,
including two silver and one bronze.
At the Doha World Championships, he won a qualification to the Paris Olympics in the men’s 3m springboard, and was thrilled to win a medal in the mixed synchro event.
In the final on this day, Madison Kinney and Domonic Bedgood (Australia) won with 300.93 points,
and Chiara Pelacani and Matteo Santoro (Italy) took second place with 287.49 points.
China, the strongest diving nation, did not participate in this event.