Park Tae Hwan grabs Men’s 400m freestyle gold: Day one - Santa Clara International Grand Prix
Park Tae Hwan of Korea grabbed gold medal of the Men’s 400m freestyle on first day of the 2012 Santa Clara International Grand Prix in California on Friday, June 1.
Santa Clara International is the last stage of 2012 USA Swimming Grand Prix Series that offers a chance to elite swimmers to compete with each other before the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old Tae Hwan, who just won gold medal of the Men’s 100m freestyle earlier at the championship, went on a rampage in his pet event and captured gold medal of the 400m discipline.
He stayed comfortably ahead of his opponents from the start of the race. With his magnificent efforts, he stayed in a prominent lead over his strongest opponent and ended his first round of the swim with the timing of 54.91 seconds.
He was followed by Matthew B McLean of Fast Swim Team-C, who stayed nearly two seconds slower from him and posted a time of 56.87 seconds.
Park continued his supremacy in the second round and extended his lead to almost three seconds by posting a time of 1 minute and 52.73 seconds. On the other hand, McLean remained three body lengths apart and ended his first half of the 400m event by submitting
a time of 1 minute and 55.41 seconds.
The same continued in third round, where the Korean swimmer faced no trouble in sustaining his fastest spot of ended his 300 metres of the swim with the timing of 2 minutes and 50.20 seconds. McLean remained nearly 3.50 seconds apart and posted an effort
of 2 minutes and 53.87 seconds.
With his immaculate efforts, Tae Hwan dominated the final round and reached the wall for gold medal with the timing of 3 minutes and 44.96 seconds.
Similarly, McLean managed to secure silver medal of the event with an effort of 3 minutes and 50.86 seconds while Michael P Klueh of Fast Swim Team-C ended third with 3 minutes and 52.30 seconds.
Furthermore, the championship came to an end after the conclusion of all planned events in Men and Women’s corner.
Tags: