Park Tae-hwan takes deep breath after finishing the preliminary of men's 200-meter freestyle in the FINA World Championships, Monday (KST). He finished fifth in his group and 13th overall in the semifinal and failed to advance to the final Tuesday in Rome. / Korea times |
By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
After two bitterly disappointing finishes in his two best events, Park Tae-hwan is left wondering why things have gone so wrong at the FINA World Championships, as he prepares to try to salvage the event in his final race.
Park failed to advance to the final of the 200-meter freestyle ― an event in which he won silver in Beijing ― after placing 13th out of 16 swimmers in the semifinals with a time of 1 minutes 46.68 seconds Tuesday.
This was only marginally less disappointing than his performance in the 400 meters Sunday, where the reigning Olympic gold medallist didn't advance past the preliminary round.
Park admitted that the pressure got to him.
``The pressure was loaded more than double on my shoulders compared with the Beijing Olympics,'' Park said.
`` "I wanted to start fast, but I just wasn't able to. I did my best but obviously I'm very disappointed,'' Park told the Associated Press.
``There was also a lot of pressure on me and I was nervous beforehand,'' he said. ``But this could help me in the future.''
Park added that he believes his workload since Beijing contributed to the weak performance.
``I'm surprised, too. I couldn't get enough rest after the Olympics. I worked hard in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 with no rest,'' he said. ``That was the problem.''
Paul Biedermann of Germany, who led the 200-meter heats with a time of 1:45.30, finished first again in 1:43.65 to set his sights on a repeat.
He demolished the seven-year-old world mark of retired Australian Ian Thorpe and topped the men's 400-meter freestyle in 3:40.07.
Reigning Olympic and world champions Michael Phelps of the United States qualified third in 1:45.23.
Despite his quick reaction time of a second-best 0.69 seconds in the heat, Park did not take advantage, placing fourth at the turn at 50 meters.
And, Park, known for his late charge, fell behind down the stretch.
To make matters worse, Park also saw his Asian record in the 400 meters fall to rival Zhang Lin of China. The Beijing silver medallist placed third in Rome with a time of 3:41.35, 0.51 seconds faster than Park's record.
After returning from China last summer, Park took some time to celebrate but was back training again soon after, traveling to the United States to work with coach Dave Salo at the University of Southern California.
Korean swimming coach Noh Min-sang said a mishandling of Park's training is partially to blame.
``I was shocked by the result,'' Noh said.
``Others around him have to be responsible for this result. They have to help young talented athlete,'' added Noh
Park has suffered from a lack of consistency in terms of coaching over the past three years. After winning three titles at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006, he joined a personal training team and under that guidance swam to a 400-meter title at the 2007 world championships.
He again changed coaches a few months prior to the Beijing Olympics, returning to the Korean national team program.
Since last summer, he has split time between the national team program and Salo's training team in California and it appears that the two programs did not complement each other well, as Salo focused on the longer 1,500-meter freestyle, under Noh the focus was the 200 and 400 meters.
It appears that all the changes are the result of in-fighting among the factions that manage Park. As a result, Park has not had his own personal coach for some time.
``As I don't have my own coach, I moved to the U.S. to train and it was good. The time I had to prepare for this competition was too short. After I made good record I have plan to make chance to tell, because there are too many worlds centering on me,'' Park said.
``It is too complicated. The most severe problem is not having my own coach.
``It hurts me that there are many factions,'' added Park.
Noh said that Park lost his focus after his success at the Olympics.
``This is a real game. After Park grabbed his gold medal, he might have changed his goals and he wanted to do many other things. We should have made sure he stayed focused on his main goal,'' Noh said.
Park will now hope to salvage an otherwise terrible world championship in the 1,500 meters later this week.
``The other swimmers have improved a lot. This test will give me lots of motivation to rebound. I have a few days to prepare. I will do my best to advance to the final round in the 1,500-meters,'' Park said.
As the Korean swimming star stumbled in the championship, some began questioning whether his work as a fashion model has had a negative effect on his performance.
Park will compete in the 1,500-meter freestyle, his last event of the championships, on Saturday.
yc@koreatimes.co.kr
|
[단독] 르노삼성, 본사 모델로 한국 공략
