Korea's best-known swimmer, Park Tae-hwan, took the gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle race at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai. Park finished in 3 minutes, 42.04 seconds, and Sun Yang of China came in second at 3 minutes 43.24 seconds.
The 22-year old Park is a member of the Korean national swimming team, based in Taereung in Seoul. He won a gold medal in the 400 meter freestyle and silver in the 200 meter freestyle events at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is the first Asian swimmer to win a gold medal in a men's 400 meter freestyle event, and the first Korean to win an Olympic medal in swimming.
| Park Tae-hwan, center, shows his gold medal for the 400m freestyle event, flanked by silver medalist Sun Yang of China, right, and bronze medalist Paul Biedermann of Germany, left, at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, July 24 (Photo: Yonhap News) |
Although Park had disappointing results at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, he still managed to come in just a little short of his personal best time of 3 minutes, 41.53 seconds and has since increased his training efforts.
Finishing seventh in the heats in Shanghai with a time of 3 minutes 46.74 seconds, Park was assigned to the first lane in the final. Park expressed nervousness, saying he'd never raced in the first lane in a major international event but would try his best.
| (Photo: Yonhap News) |
Park was quickest from the very start, and had the fastest splits at 50ï½, 100m and 150ï½. In the 150~200m section, French swimmer Yanick Agnel pulled ahead of Park, who dropped to fourth place after 250ï½. However, Park recovered after 300m and was able to close the huge gap between himself and the lead to pull off a win.
Park has been training for the 200m, 400m and 1500m since 2009, but has been criticized for trying to cover too many different distances rather than concentrating on perfecting his abilities over a single distance. Park began working with Michael Bohl last year, and began concentrating on the 1500m and 400m, increasing both Park’s endurance and speed.
| (Photo: Yonhap News) |
Park has also been working on developing his underwater swimming skills and turning, which were previously cited as the swimmers weak areas. Park also finished fourth in the men's 200m freestyle final, which was held on Tuesday, July 26, with a time of 1 minute 44.92 seconds. Park came in just 0.04 seconds behind bronze medalist Paul Biedermann of Germany. Ryan Lochte won the race with a time of 1 minute 44.44 seconds, and Michael Phelps came second with a time of 1 minute 44.79 seconds.
| (Photo: Yonhap News) |
Park said he was disappointed with the results and said that there were still many skills and techniques he needed to perfect. After Park has finished all his races, he said that he want to go back and spend time with his family, which he hasn’t been able to see in a long time because of his training schedule.
By Oh Jun Kyung
Korea.net Staff Writer
