S. Korea qualifies for swimming relay final for 1st time

South Korea qualified for the final of the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay swimming at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, the country's first-ever appearance in a relay medal race.

The quartet of Lee Ho-joon, Lee Yoo-yeon, Kim Yeong-hyeon and Kim Woo-min finished seventh overall in the heats with a time of 7:07.96 at Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, to punch their ticket to the final scheduled for Tuesday night. The top eight teams from the heats qualified for the final, and there will be nine teams this time after Israel and Japan finished tied for eighth in 7:08.43.

Britain won the heats in 7:05.11. The United States, France, Australia, Germany and China also reached the final.

South Korea finished fourth in Heat 1. The team was in sixth place at the 600m turn but Kim Woo-min, the bronze medalist in the 400m freestyle on Saturday, anchored the team to fourth place.

Kim had the fastest 200m split on the team with 1:45.59.

Lee Ho-joon led off with a split of 1:46.53, putting South Korea in third after the opening 200m. Lee Yoo-yeon covered the next 200m in 1:47.58 as South Korea dropped to sixth. South Korea fell to seventh place during Kim Yeong-hyeon's third leg but he ended up touching the pad with the team in sixth, after a split of 1:48.26.

For the final, South Korea will bring back Hwang Sun-woo, the reigning 200m freestyle world champion.

Hwang had competed in the 100m freestyle heats earlier Tuesday and sat out the relay heats. After the team reached the final without him, Hwang withdrew from the 100m freestyle semifinals to focus on the relay final, which are scheduled less than two hours apart.

At this year's worlds in Qatar, Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon, Yang Jae-hoon and Hwang won a historic silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay -- South Korea's first relay medal at a world championship. These four will be reunited for the final here.