Park Tae-hwan grabs silver in 200-meter freestyle

London -- Park Tae-hwan grabbed the silver medal in the men's 200-meter freestyle at the London Olympics Monday.

Park came in second at 1 minute and 44.93 seconds, behind Yannick Agnel of France at 1:43.14. Park shared second place with China's Sun Yang, the 400ｍ freestyle champion from Sunday.

This was Park's second straight silver in the Olympics. In Beijing four years ago, he was second behind Michael Phelps; the silver medal time then was 1:44.85.

After winning a gold and a silver in Beijing, Park has so far earned two silver medals in London. He's the first South Korean male athlete to capture at least two medals in two Olympic Games in a row.

Park was the fastest into the pool with a reaction time of 0.64 seconds, apparently unfazed by Saturday's fiasco over a false start disqualification that was later overturned. But it was Agnel who charged out in front early and Park touched the 50m mark in fourth place.

The South Korean made up more ground half way through and rose to second behind Agnel. American Ryan Lochte charged ahead to second place with 50ｍ left, but it was Park and Sun who had the identical time for silver while Lochte fell to fourth at 1:45.04.

Agnel enjoyed a wire-to-wire victory in the star-studded field.

Park said his coach, Michael Bohl from Australia, told him he would have a good result as long as he stuck to his game plan.

"I wasn't exactly brimming with confidence," Park said. "But I wanted to do my best for the coach."

Park quipped that he felt he was faster than Sun to the finish and he lost only because he is shorter. Park is listed at 183 centimeters while Sun is almost 200 centimeters.

Park said regardless of the color of the medal, he enjoyed racing against other great swimmers.

"Whether I beat them or not, I think it's a blessing for me to be swimming against those guys," he said. "I am happy to have another Olympic medal around my neck."

Park took the silver behind Sun in the 400ｍ, after the disqualification debacle. He said more so than winning a medal in the 200m, he wanted to "put on a real, proper race" for the fans back home.

Park's personal best in the 200ｍ free is 1:44.80, set at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. The world record of 1:42 was set by Paul Biedermann of Germany at the 2009 world championships. (Yonhap News)