Swimmer Park Tae-hwan wins second gold in Asian Games
Park Tae-hwan stole the spotlight from the vaunted Chinese swimmers on the fourth day of the 2010 Asian Games swimming competition at the Aoti Aquatics Centre on Tuesday.
The South Korean ruled the men's 400m freestyle to earn his second gold in the Guangzhou meet. Park, the Most Valuable Athlete of the 2006 Doha Asian Games, clocked 3:41.53 to retain his title.
"It feels good to have led the whole race and finish it with a good time," said Park, who won the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The 21-year-old, who earlier won the 200m freestyle gold, added that his hard work has finally paid off.
"That is the result of all my training this year. I think I have recovered my past form from two years ago so this is a very good opportunity."
China's Sun Yang finished second in 3:42.47. Zhang Lin, who placed second to Park in the Beijing Games, settled for the bronze medal in 3:49.15.
Ryosuke Irie of Japan was the only other non-Chinese winner in the night when he topped the men's 100m backstroke. He clocked 53.61 seconds to edge team-mate Junya Koga (53.88). China's Sun Xiaolei took
bronze in 54.46.
Hosts China won five gold medals on the fourth day of competition.
Zhou Jiawei won the men's 50m butterfly in 23.66. The Asian record holder touched the wall ahead of Japanese Masayuki Kishida (24.13) and Indian Virdhawal Khade (24.31). The 19-year-old Khade was the first
Indian swimmer to win a medal in the Asian Games since Khajan Singh won a silver at the 1986 Seoul Asiad.
Ji Liping was victorious in the women's 100m breaststroke. She posted a winning time of 1:06.91. Japan's Satomi Suzuki finished second in 1:07.43 while another Chinese Chen Huijia came in third in 1:07.98.
Li Zhesi topped the women's 50m freestyle final in 24.97. Compatriot Tang Yi settled for the silver medal in 25.22 while Japan's Yayoi Matsumoto finished third in 25.67.
The hosts concluded the night with victories in the relay events.
Zhu Qianwei, Liu Jing, Wang Shijia and Tang won the women's 4x200m freestyle relay. They clocked 7:51.81 to easily beat the Japanese quartet of Hanae Ito, Haruka Ueda, Matsumoto and Risa Sekine, who finished
the race in 7:55.92.
South Koreans Park Na-ri, Choi Hye-ra, Lee Jae-young and Seo Youn-jeong placed third in 8:07.78.
In the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, s**+ Tengfei, Jiang Haiqi, s**+ Runqiang and Lu Zhiwu posted a winning time of 3:16.34. They beat Japan's Takuro Fujii, Rammaru Harada, Shunsuke Kuzuhara and Sho Uchida
(3:16.78) in a thrilling finish.
Kim Yong-sik, Bae Joon-mo, Park Seon-kwan and Park TH finished third in 3:19.02.
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