Park Tae-hwan grabs 3rd gold in Canada
Park Tae-hwan of Korea celebrates his victory in the 1500m freestyle final on day six of the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) at the WFCU Centre in Windsor Ontario, Canada, Sunday / AFP-Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan, 27, wrapped up the 2016 season with great success after he clinched his third gold medal at the Short Course Swimming World Championships in Windsor, Canada, Monday (KST).
At the WFCU Centre, Park, who already clinched the gold in the men’s 200 and 400-meter freestyle races, won in the 1,500-meter freestyle with a time of 14:15.51 seconds.
Park claimed the 1,500-meter title by defeating European star Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy by 6.43 seconds. Paltrinieri, who held the world record in this event, was a probable gold medal winner as he was the fastest qualifier in the heats. But Park swam intelligently, controlling Paltrinieri’s pace. Wojciech Wojdak of Poland took the bronze with 14:25.37 seconds.
With the win, the 2008 Beijing Olympics champion broke the Short Course Championships’ best record set by Paltrinieri (14 minutes 16.10 seconds) in 2014 and the Asian record of 14:22.47 seconds, set by China’s Zhang Lin in 2009.
Right after the 1,500-meter race, Park also swam in the men’s 100-meter freestyle final and ranked seventh out of eight finalists with a time of 47.09 seconds. Lithuania’s Simonas Bilis came first with 46.58, Japan’s Shinri Shioura took the silver with 46.59 and Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna took the bronze with 46.70.
With three gold medals at the Short Course Championships, Park wrapped up his eventful 2016 season and clearly made his presence felt on the world’s swimming scene.
Park has had a few forgettable years since 2014
he was suspended last year for 18 months by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) for testing positive for banned testosterone supplements in 2014. After serving his ban, Park still remained ineligible for the national team as the Korean Olympics Committee (KOC) bans athletes who have been suspended for doping from representing the country for three years starting the day their international ban ends. To resolve the issue, he took the KOC case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport which ruled in his favor in July.
After the court battle, he participated in this summer’s Rio Olympics but struggled there, failing to make the final in the 100, 200 and 400-meter freestyle races mainly due to insufficient training.
Park then made a successful comeback after winning two races at the country’s National Sports Festival in October and four titles at the Asian Championships in Tokyo last month.