Woo Ha-ram, 3rd Place in Men’s 1m Springboard
[Asian Games] Woo Ha-ram, 3rd Place in Men’s 1m Springboard… 10th Medal in Total
Since the 2014 Incheon Games, he has participated three times in a row and won a medal.
"Korea"s diving star" Woo Ha-ram (25, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation) achieved 10 individual medals (4 silver medals, 6 bronze medals) at the Asian Games.
Woo Ha-ram took third place with a total of 395.95 points from the first to sixth periods in the men"s 1m springboard diving final at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center swimming pool in Zhejiang, China, on the 2nd.
Woo Ha-ram, who won eight Asian Games medals in Incheon in 2014 and Jakarta and Palembang in 2018 and was the most decorated Korean representative in all sports at the Hangzhou Asian Games, has won two medals so far in this competition. The record was further improved by adding more.
He is also aiming to win a medal in the 3m springboard individual event held on the 3rd.
The gap between Wang Zhongyuan (21), who holds six World Championship medals, and Feng Jianfeng (29, China), who ranked first in this event at the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships, was large.
Wang Zongyuan ranked first with 459.50 points, and Feng Jianfeng ranked second with 442.45 points.
Woo Ha-ram competed for the bronze medal with Kim Young-taek (22, Jeju Provincial Office), a younger member of the national team who had grown significantly.
Until the end of the second period, Kim Young-taek was ahead of Woo Ha-ram.
However, Woo Ha-ram turned the tables in the third period by receiving 74.25 points with a 107B move of difficulty 3.0, ‘jump forward, turn three and a half times, and cover with both hands with legs straight.’
Kim Young-taek"s score in the third period was 58.50 points.
Woo Ha-ram finished the game without losing third place.
Youngtaek Kim took fourth place with 342.55 points.
Woo Ha-ram is a leading athlete in Korean diving.
He ranked fourth in the 1m springboard and 3m springboard individual events at the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, the highest ever for Korean men in diving.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, Korean diving achieved an all-time high of 4th place in the men"s 3m springboard, fostering an "Olympic medal dream" that had never been imagined before.
However, Woo Ha-ram was unable to compete at the 2022 Budapest World Championships due to back pain.
At the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships last July, where he competed without being able to train sufficiently due to a long rehabilitation period, he received an uncharacteristic report card for Woo Haram, saying he failed in the 3m springboard preliminaries.
On the 30th of last month, Woo Ha-ram won a silver medal in the men"s synchronized 3m springboard event in which he competed in a pair with Lee Jae-kyung (24, Gwangju Metropolitan City Sports Council).
He said, "I have hit rock bottom and am working my way up," and added, "I have competed in all events (3) in the Asian Games.
He promised, “I will rebound after winning a medal and achieve good results at the Doha World Championships next February (where qualification for the Paris Olympics is at stake).”
First of all, Woo Ha-ram added a medal in the individual event, taking one step closer to winning medals in all the events he participated in.
Until this day, Korean diving has won 5 medals (2 silver, 3 bronze), including in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018 (2 silver, 3 bronze) and Incheon in 2014 (1 silver, 4 bronze). He set a record for the most medals in a single Asian Games.
Adding one more will result in the largest number of medals in a single Asian Games in Korean diving history.