A South Korean teenage swimmer has set a new world record in the men’s 200-meter freestyle event and is in the process of gaining official recognition from the International Swimming Federation(FINA). 

Hwang Sun-woo, a junior at Seoul Sports High School, clocked one-minute and 45-point-92 seconds in the 200-meter final at a national team selection contest in Gimcheon, North Gyeonsang Province on Thursday. 

That is zero-point-21 second faster than the junior world record set by Elijah Winnington of Australia in December of 2018 when he was 18. 

FINA, which has officially ratified junior world records since 2014, is expected to recognize the 17-year-old South Korean’s performance as the new junior world record if he passes a doping test. 

The Korea Swimming Federation is scheduled to submit the results of Hwang's doping test to FINA soon. If approved, South Korea will have a junior world record holder for the first time in swimming. 

Park Tae-hwan, 31, the first and only Olympic gold medalist swimmer from South Korea, set the Korean record of one-minute, 44-point-80 seconds, in the men’s 200-meter freestyle when he won a gold medal at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010.