Park Tae-hwan earns third gold in men's 100m freestyle

Park Tae-hwan earns third gold in men's 100m freestyle

By Yi Whan-woo South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan completed a golden triple at the Guangzhou Asiad, Wednesday, winning the men’s 100-meter freestyle. The 21-year-old set a series of new Asiad records, including the highest number of wins overall with six, breaking the previous record set by Choi Yoon-hee with five in 1986 in Seoul. Park is now the first male swimmer to win triple gold in two consecutive Games, as well claiming the highest number of medals with 12 overall ― including one silver and five bronze. The top finish in the qualification round was only the prelude for the youngster who swam even faster in the final, overwhelming the competition from the start and finishing in 48.70 seconds, breaking his own Korean record of 48.94. Park showed a perfect revival from a recent slump by winning the 200- and 400-meter freestyle races earlier. He was highly expected to complete a triple following Wednesday’s qualification for the final in the 100 meters where he took first place. He previously won three titles in 200-, 400-, and 1,500-meters in the 2006 Doha Asiad. “I was simply out of my mind,” Park said after the win. “Since the 100 meters was not my major event, I was diligent in preparing myself for this race,” he said. The swimmer made himself look more prominent by rewriting South Korea’s history in swimming, breaking the record set by Choi 24 years ago on home soil when she won two gold after three four years earlier. Choi won the women’s 100- and 200-meter backstroke, following ones in the same events and the 200-meter individual medley in the 1982 Asiad. Although Park is now acclaimed as the most decorated swimmer in Korea, concerns were raised before the Asiad as to whether he could revive from his disastrous 2009 World Championships when he came home empty-handed _ a stark contrast to the Beijing Olympics the year before where he shone with a gold and a silver in the 400- and 200-meter freestyle, respectively. Park was not the only South Korean swimmer to produce a special performance, Wednesday. Jeong Da-rae joined Choi as one of the three South Korean females to win in the Asiad by dominating the women’s 200-meter breastsroke final. Jeong took the lead after the first 50 meters and never let it go to finish in 2 minutes 25.02 seconds, beating China’s Sun Ye and Ji Liping. The 19-year-old Jeong burst into tears in celebration with her first victory in the Asiad. “I realized I could go for the win when I saw no one ahead of me after the 100-meter point turn,” she said. Jeong made up for defeats in the 50-, and 100-meter events and was quoted as saying “I regarded this race as my last chance and made my foremost efforts to win.”

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