South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan has won his first international event since his unsuccessful run at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics earlier this week.
Park won the men’s 200-meter freestyle final at the Asian Swimming Championship held in Tokyo on Thursday.
At the final held at the Tatsumi International Swimming Center, the 27-year-old swimmer finished first with a time of one minute and 45-point-16 seconds, ahead of Wang Shun of China, who came in at one minute and 47-point-zero-seven seconds.
Park’s winning time at the event is also zero-point-zero-four seconds faster than the record with which Chad le Clos of South Africa won a silver medal in the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the Brazil Olympics.
It was a redeeming performance for the Beijing Olympic gold medalist after he was disqualified in the preliminary of the 200-meter freestyle in Rio by finishing 29th out of 47 athletes.
Park aims to add more medals at the Asian Championships beginning with the 400-meter freestyle to be held on Friday. He will also compete in the 100-meter and 15-hundred-meter freestyle events on Saturday and the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.