Park Tae-hwan wins sixth race at national trials

Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan on Monday won his sixth race at the ongoing national team trials for the upcoming Asian Games, taking the 400-meter individual medley with a meet record.

In Gimcheon, about 230 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Park came in first with a time of 4:23.21, shedding 0.22 second off the previous mark.

The winners of each race here will qualify for this year’s Asian Games, which will be held in the South Korean city of Incheon from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

Last week, Park finished first in the 100, 200, 400 freestyle, and the 200 individual medley.

He was also a member of the first-place 800-meter relay team.

Park, a two-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle, had never competed in the 400 individual medley until Monday.

The individual medley event requires a swimmer to race equal distances with four different strokes ― butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

On Monday, Park was only fifth through the first three components, but stormed back over the final 100 meters in freestyle for the title.

Park won the 2008 Olympic gold medal and the 2012 Olympic silver medal in the 400 freestyle, in addition to world titles in the distance in 2007 and 2011.

In the 200-meter freestyle, Park has won two Olympic silver medals and one world championship bronze medal.

He swept up gold medals in the 200, 400 and 1,500 at the 2006 Asiad in Doha, Qatar, and then won gold medals in the 100, 200 and 400 at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. (Yonhap)