GIMCHEON, South Korea, July 16. TAE Hwan Park, the top Korean swimmer of all time, looks to be firing on all cylinders after day one of the South Korean Nationals in Gimcheon.
Park smashed the field in the men’s 200-meter free with the top-ranked time in the world as he charted a 1:45.25. That swim cleared the previous best of 1:45.46 set by Cameron McEvoy at Australian Nationals, while also standing as a new meet record in South Korea. Su Jeong Jeong took second in the finale with a 1:51.07, while Jin Jang Sang placed third in 1:51.42.
The performance set Park up for a big head-to-head swim against Sun Yang at the Asian Games in Incheon later this summer. Park, one of the best freestylers of all time, is branching out a bit this week with entries in the 200 and 400-meter IMs at Nationals this week.
In other action, Jungu Cheong posted a meet record in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:02.08. Seok Hwan Yoon pocketed the men’s 50-meter fly meet record with a time of 24.24, while Seo Jin Huang clipped An Seh Yeon in the women’s 50-meter fly, 27.15 to 27.16, for a meet record of her own.
Additionally, Su Yeon Baek touched out Kim Hye Jin in the women’s 100-meter breast, 1:09.57 to 1:09.65, while Hye Gim Jeong captured the women’s 200-meter freestyle finale in 2:01.44.