Park Wins Bronze Medal
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea's swimming star Park Tae-hwan's hopes for a gold medal at the International Swim Meet in Japan were dashed, but by winning the bronze his future in the Beijing Olympics seems assured.
In the men's 1,500-meter freestyle, the 17-year-old finished third with 14:58.43 behind Australia's distance swimming champion Grant Hackett, who topped the race with 14:48.70, and world championship winner Mateusz Sawrymowicz of Poland, who clocked 14:50.72.
Instead of preliminary rounds due to a lack of participants, the eight finallists were decided by their records of this year.
Park, who beat icon Hackett in the 400-meter freestyle last Tuesday en route to the gold medal, started at line three and midway through the race, competed shoulder to shoulder with the Australian and Sawrymowicz.
However, the Korean, disqualified for the final at the World Championships in Melbourne last March, could not overcome his shortcomings in the turns and started falling behind after 1,000-meters.
He also failed to break his personal best and the Asian record of 14:55.03, set at the Doha Asian Games last December.
At 800 meters, Park bettered his record by four seconds, but could not maintain that pace.
Although only managing a bronze, he showed off his improved capablity in the competition, a tune-up to the Beijing Olympics to raise hopes of winning a medal in the event.