Kim Woo-min competes in the men's 400-meter freestyle swimming event at the Paris Olympics at Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France, July 27. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Korean swimming medal hopeful Kim Woo-min advanced to the final of the men's 400-meter freestyle event at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

Kim squeezed into the final after finishing seventh overall in the heats with a time of 3:45.52 at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, just west of Paris. The top eight swimmers from the heats qualified for the final, which is scheduled for 8:42 p.m. (local time), or 3:42 a.m. Sunday (Korea time).

Kim, the current world champion in the 400m freestyle, is trying to become only the second Korean swimmer to win an Olympic medal, joining former star Park Tae-hwan.

Park won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle in 2008 and followed that up with the silver four years later. He also won silver medals in the 200m freestyle in 2008 and 2012.

The men's 400m freestyle final is the first swimming medal race of this Olympics.

Competing in Heat 4, Kim had the fastest reaction time off the blocks at 0.59 second. He was in the lead through the opening 100m at 53.31 seconds.

Samuel Short of Australia took the lead at the 150m turn, and it was Short-Kim in first and second places at the 300m mark.

Then Guilherme Costa of Brazil moved past Kim at the 350m turn and beat Short by 0.65 second to win the heat at 3:44.23.

Kim, who noticeably slowed over the home stretch, finished in fourth in his group at 3:45.52. His final 50m split was 28.47 seconds, only the sixth-fastest time among eight swimmers in Heat 4.

Kim was fifth overall with one more group left and had to hold his breath before seeing only two swimmers in the last heat, Lukas Martens of Germany and Elijah Winnington of Australia, post faster times than the Korean. That kept Kim within the top eight overall.

Kim, who set a personal best of 3:42.42 in June, said he was more surprised than anyone with his poor finish.

"I didn't slow down to pace myself. I usually tend to struggle in heats held in the morning of competitions," Kim said. "I wanted to do my best from the heats, but it was such a bad time."

Kim admitted that he watched Heat 5 nervously and doubts crept into his mind as to whether he would even qualify for the final.

"I felt comfortable through the first 200m, but I didn't get the speed that I thought I could after 300m," he said. "It was a tough race."

With the spot in the final secured, Kim vowed to be better in the afternoon.

"I usually do better in afternoon races," Kim said. "And I don't think anyone can predict who's going to finish where in the final. Maybe I can finish in first place." (Yonhap)