By Yoon Chul
South Korean swimming icon Park Tae-hwan announced his return to form by snatching gold in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, overwhelming new rising Chinese star Sun Yang and Asian record holder Zhang Lin.
Clocking in at 3:41:53 — beating his previous best by 0.18 seconds — this is Park’s second gold medal at the Asiad in Guangzhou.
However he failed to break the Asian record of 3:41:35 set by Zhang Lin in the 2009 World Championships in Rome.
“I hoped to break Asian record,” Park said. “Compared to the beginning of the race my pace dropped at the end,” he added.
The 21-year-old dubbed “Marine boy,” started in lane 2 while his Chinese rivals were in lanes 4 and 5.
Park took only .68 seconds to react to the starting whistle — the fastest among the finalists and his pace on track for a world record until he reached 300-meters, after which he fell .09 seconds behind.
He left Zhang far behind as he beat Sun (second) by .94 seconds.
The latter geared up from 250 meters and narrowed the gap but failed to catch Park.
Hwang Sun-ok and Kim Soo-myun became the first Koreans to win gold in bowling and gymnastics.
In the women’s individual event Hwang scored 1,395 at Tianhe Bowling Hall.
“As there are six games in the individual event there are many variables, and so I didn’t expect gold. Now I am really happy,” Hwang said.
In the men’s floor event Kim and Chenglong Zhang of China both scored 15.400 for gold.
In the last day of the judo competition Korea challenged for gold in four classes, but had to settle for silver and two bronzes.
Beijing Olympic gold medalist Choi Min-ho lost to world No. 1 Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan in the semifinal of the 60 kilogram weight class, and had to be satisfied with for bronze, beating Kazakhstan’s Yerkebulan Kossayev.
Kim Na-young clashed in the women’s open class final against Huanyuan Liu of China but failed to earn gold.
In the women’s under 48-kilogram class, Chung Jung-yeon beat North Korean Hwang Ryu-ok for bronze.
South Korea collected six gold, three silver and five bronze medals in judo.
Weightlifter Kim Soo-kyung grabbed silver lifting 240 kilograms, a kilogram lighter than gold medalist Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan in the women’s 63-kilogram class
Korea also won one silver in table tennis, and three bronze medals in shooting, alongside two in swimming.
Meanwhile the Korean women’s football team nailed Jordan 5-0 in a preliminary match with star Ji So-yun scoring a hat-trick.