Park Tae-hwan wins third gold in Guangzhou
Four years ago, Park Tae-hwan was the teenage swimming sensation of the Doha Asian Games after winning three gold medals. Now the South Korean is 21 years old and is still making waves in the Asiad pool.
Park won his third gold medal in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games after ruling the men's 100m freestyle final at the Aoti Aquatics Centre on Wednesday.
He clocked 48.70 seconds to beat China's Li Zhiwu by 0.28. Japan's Takuro Fujii claimed the bronze medal in 49.37.
"I am very happy with the result. I am not good at the 100m free, but I performed pretty well today. My team-mates and coach gave me lots of encouragement before the final," said Park, who earlier won
golds in the 200m and 400m freestyle events.
The South Korean said he is now back in top form after a disappointing performance in last year's world championships in Rome.
"I went through a difficult year in 2009. After the Rome world championships, I doubled my effort in training. Now I think the three gold medals are my rewards."
Park will shoot for his fourth gold medal of the meet when he takes part in the 1,500m tomorrow at the conclusion of the swimming competition.
Park was not the only South Korean to emerge victorious in the pool on Wednesday.
Sharing the spotlight with him was Jeong Da-rae, who stunned favoured Chinese and Japanese swimmers to win the women's 200m breaststroke title. She touched the wall in 2:25.02 to break the two powerhouse
countries' domination of the women's events.
Local bets Sun Ye and Ji Liping were the favourites to take gold, having broken the 2:25 barrier this year. Sun settled for the silver in 2:25.27 while Ji took bronze in 2:25.40.
Japan's Rie Kaneto (2:25.63) and Satomi Suzuki (2:25.68), who were both ranked in the top ten in the world this year, came in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Despite suffering losses in the 200m breaststroke, the host nation still scooped three golds for the day.
Tang Yi won the women's 100m freestyle final in 54.12 to claim her second gold medal of the meet. Another Chinese Li Zhisi finished second in 54.84 while Japan's Haruka Ueda landed in third spot in 55.15.
Zhao Jing bagged the gold in the women's 100m backstroke. She posted a winning time of 59.20 to beat Japan's Shiho Sakai (59.87) and compatriot Gao Chang (59.90).
Li Xuanxu closed out the night with a victory in the women's 800m freestyle. She finished the race in 8:23.55 to beat her previous season best of 8:24.10. Another local bet Shao Yiwen finished second in
8:24.14 while Japanese Maiko Fujino placed third in 8:33.55.
Japan's lone gold of the night was won by Ken Takakuwa in the men's 200m individual medley. He clocked 1:58.31, which is just short of his season best 1:58.06. China's Wang Shun (1:59.72) and Japan's Yuya
Horihata (2:00.48) settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
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