Olympic gold medal-winning freestyler Park Tae-hwan is looking to expand his repertoire. The Korea Herald report that Park will enter the 200 and 400 IMs at next week’s Korean national team trials, with the hope of making the country’s Asian Games roster in those races.
Park will also swim the 100, 200, 400 and 1500 meter freestyles, the events where he’s earned his fame over the past decade. The Korean Championships will take place in Gimcheon next week, and will serve as the country’s selection meet for the Asian Games in September.
Those Asian Games will be hosted by South Korea in Incheon, in a brand-new swimming facility named after Park, South Korea’s first-ever Olympic medalist.
Park has been pretty much a pure freestyler in international competition over his career thus far, so it’s difficult to predict how his foray into the IMs will go. The Korea Herald reports that he’s been as fast as 2:01.78 in the 200 IM back in 2010. He’ll need to win the event to earn an Asian Games berth. But one would imagine he’ll close hard as he always does, a major weapon to have in a grueling set of races.
Will be really interesting to see what Park can do in these events. I expect times which are pretty decent, given Park’s great technique, balance and proven versatility in the freestyle ranging from 50-1500.
I expect a sub 2-min definitely for the 200IM, especially given that someone like Irie could pop below 2-mins on the Mare Nostrum.