(Gwangju Swimming) S. Korean Kim Seo-yeong advances to women's 200m IM final

GWANGJU, July 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Kim Seo-yeong advanced to the final in the women's 200m individual medley (IM) at the world championships on Sunday, becoming the first athlete from the host nation to reach the medal round in the pool. Kim finished seventh in the semifinals in a time of 2:10.21. The top eight from the semis advanced to the final, scheduled for Monday back at Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul. Earlier in the day, Kim finished 10th in the heats in 2:11.45 to qualify for the semifinals. Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, three-time defending champion and world record holder, won the semifinals in 2:07.17. This is Kim's second straight world championships final in the 200m IM. In 2017, Kim placed sixth as the first South Korean to make the final in a medley race. She now joins two-time champion Park Tae-hwan as the only South Korean swimmers to reach a final at multiple world championships. Kim will try to become the first female swimmer from South Korea to win a world championships medal. Park, who has won three men's freestyle medals, including two golds in the 400m, remains the only South Korean swimmer to have made the podium at the worlds. Kim owns the national record in the 200m IM with 2:08.34. Kim's best time this year is 2:09.97, which is good for 25th fastest. In the IM, swimmers race in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Swimming in the first heat, Kim was first after the first 50m at 27.52 seconds. And she remained in the lead after the backstroke session at 1:00.27. But the South Korean fell behind Sydney Pickrem of Canada and Ye Shiwen of China over the breaststroke stretch, and finished third in her heat behind those two at 2:10.21. Kim had to wait for the second heat to finish and see if her time would be good enough to be in the top eight in the semifinals. Kim barely made it, with Siobhan O'Connor of Britain taking the eighth place in 2:10.49. jeeho@yna.co.kr (END)