Park Bags 4th Gold, Seoyeong Takes 2 IM On Day 3 Of Korean Nats

99TH KOREAN SPORTS FESTIVAL

• Saturday, October 13th – Thursday, October 18th (swimming portion)
• Eonbuk Iksan Ungpo, Korea
• LCM
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Results (Korean)

Park Tae Hwan is on his way to earning his 5th MVP title of the Korean Swimming Championships, part of the 99th Korean Sports Festival that runs through Thursday. Tonight the 29-year-old Olympian claimed two golds, one in the individual 400m freestyle and one in the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay. Although his times are not as elite as they’ve been in the past, the 2008 Olympic champion has expressed satisfaction with his performances with only just 2 months of training.

Park cruised to the top of the podium in the 400m free in a time of 3:52.97 to add another gold to his earlier wins in the 200m free and 4 x 200m free relay. He won by almost a second and a half and his time was about 3 seconds quicker than the 3:55.87 he produced at the TYR Pro Swim Series this past June in Santa Clara.

Splits aren’t available for the relay, but Park anchored his Team Incheon to the 4 x 100m free gold, with the entire foursome clocking a time of 3:20.71 to win its 2nd consecutive national title in the event. Park will compete on his squad’s medley relay to pursue his 5th gold of these championships.

Although extremely early in the season, Park’s 400m free time checks-in as the 10th fastest in the world thus far.

You can watch Park’s 400m free race below, courtesy of 환TV.

Standout Kim Seoyeong was also in the pool tonight in the women’s 2oom IM where the national record holder took the title in a time of 2:12.32. She represented the only racer to delve under the 2:14 mark. Seoyeong was pleased with her effort, as the 24-year-old has had no rest, competing immediately after the Asian Games. She will contest the women’s 400m IM later in the meet here.

Again, with very early rankings, Seoyeong is situated #2 in the world in the 200m IM.