Park fails in regional qualifier

By Cho Mu-hyun

Park Tae-hwan, in Australia in preparation of next year's Olympic Games, was knocked out in the 200-meter preliminaries in a regional Australian competition, Sunday.

In the men's 200-meter freestyle category of the 2011 McDonald's Queensland Championships at the Brisbane Aquatic Center, the 22-year-old finished in 1 minute 53:23 seconds and came seventh but failed to reach the final due to competition regulations.

Only three non-Queensland residents are eligible to enter the finals, and Park ranked 4th of the non-Queensland competitors,.

Park's personal best for 200-meter freestyle is 1:44:80, which he set when he won the gold at the Guangzhou Asian Games last year.

He left for Brisbane, Australia in Oct. 20 to train with coach Michael Bohl and entered the contest as part of his preparatory training for the 2012 Olympic Games. Park wore his training uniform instead of a competition uniform for the local contest.

Park will compete in three further categories, in the 400-meter freestyle on Monday, followed by the 100- meter freestyle and 1500 meter freestyle on Tuesday. He is expected to return to Korea after the competition for a two-week break and leave for Australia again on Jan. 4 for further off-season training.