South Korean swimming hero Park Tae-hwan won a gold medal in his first official event of the year early Sunday morning (Korean time).
Park clocked in at 1:47.43 in the 200-meter freestyle competition in the Janet Evans Invitational held in Irvine, Calif.
Park, who won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and a silver in the 200-meter freestyle events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, was the fastest in the preliminary, clocking in at 1:50.42. His personal best in the 200-meter freestyle was 1:44.85, when he won the silver in Beijing last year.
Park is set to challenge for another gold in the 400-meter freestyle event which will be held later. He enters the 400-meter final in first with a time of 3:50.27.
He will also compete in the 1,500-meter freestyle event Monday.
Park is the first Asian swimmer to win a gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle event, and the first Korean to win a medal in swimming.