By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
South Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan is to warm up at the Janet Evans Invitational (JEI), scheduled for May 22 to 24 in Los Angeles, ahead of the World Swimming Championships.
The 19 year old, who won a gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, has been training under University of Southern California (USC) head coach Dave Salo since April 16, and will race in the 200-, 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle events at the meet.
The JEI is an annual competition, organized by four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans of the United States, and is a test event for American swimmers.
``My focus is the FINA World Championships in July, and because my condition is not yet perfect I am still working on my fitness,'' Park said.
``This competition has meaning and will involve real experience by competing against world class swimmers, rather than a record.''
Beijing Olympic gold medallist in the 1,500-meter freestyle, Mellouli Oussama of Tunisia, who trains with Park at USC, will also take part in the competition to check out his form for the World Championships.
Park believes racing with him will be helpful as he focuses on the 1,500 meters, his least competitive event.
While claiming one gold, and one silver in the 200-meter freestyle in Beijing, Park was disqualified for the 1,500 final.
Park trains for two-and-half hours twice per day and does weight training for another two hours.
He will continue this schedule until May 29 in his bid to grab a second-straight gold medal in the 400-meter event as well as cut his record in the 1,500 meters in big competition.
The world championships will take place from July 18 to 26 in Rome.