 Park Tae-hwan grimaces after finishing the 200-meter freestyle, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Yoon Chul
Park Tae-hwan almost narrowed the gap at the very end of the 200-meter freestyle with the leading pack, but just failed to acquire another medal in the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, Tuesday.
Park, who clinched the win in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, Sunday, finished fourth while American rising swimming star Ryan Lochte won beating his nation’s swimming great Michael Phelps and world record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany.
Lochte clocked in at 1:44.44 to win. Phelps was .35 seconds behind him and Biedermann was third.
At the start Park needed only .66 seconds to react to the start whistle, which was the fastest among finalists, but he fell behind then leader Phelps and touched fifth at 50 meters.
Lochte came to the front at the 150-meter mark and never lost his lead.
Park, who snatched silver in the Beijing Olympics in that event, increased his speed with 50 meters left.
Standing at 1.83 meters tall Park was the shortest swimmer among eight finalists and this may have been a factor in him touching the wall .04 seconds behind the third-finisher at 1:44.92.
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