Teenage swimmer splashes to gold

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan may only be 17 years old, but he already has a flair for the dramatic. Park won the gold medal in the men’s 200-meter swimming freestyle at the Doha Asian Games early yesterday, Korean time, setting an Asian record in the process at 1:45.12. His time was 0.39 seconds better than the record Park set in August at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Canada. The world record in the 200-meter freestyle (1:44.06) was set by Ian Thorpe of Australia in 2001.

Overall, China continued its Games domination as three Chinese women set world weightlifting records. South Korea and Japan are slugging it out for second in golds and total medals. For Park, the win was yet another come-from-behind effort in a burgeoning career. He trailed China’s Zhang Enjian at the 100-meter turn, but 50 meters later, Park was ahead by more than half a second. In the end, the South Korean was 0.73 seconds ahead of Zhang, who got the silver medal, and more than two full seconds in front of Japan’s Daisuke Hosokawa, who took bronze. Last summer, in winning two golds and a silver at the Pan Pacific Championships, Park came from behind in all of his medal races. In the Pan Pacific 400-meter freestyle, Park was third at the halfway mark, but exploded in the final 50 meters to beat Zhang by 1.35 seconds for the win. After his Doha victory, Park said he prepared a number of strategies before the final, and pacing himself for a late kick was one of them. “Asian swimmers know each other well, so they know how others will approach each race,” Park said. “I had a few strategies in mind, and made some adjustments along the way.” Prior to the final, Park listened to pop music on his MP3 player. He listens to Korean pop songs “to relax and get rid of butterflies.” If he was nervous, he didn’t show it in the pool. It was a big step for Park from his performance as a middle school student at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, where a fidgety Park was disqualified from the 400-meter free on a false start. This time around, he started well and finished better, giving South Korea its first Asiad gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle. “I was satisfied with my start,” Park said. “But it’s not 100 percent yet. I will have to work on it even harder.” Late Sunday night, Korean time, the women’s soft tennis team beat Japan 2-1 with its own come-from-behind effort for the nation’s second gold in Doha. It was South Korea’s fourth consecutive Asian Games gold in the event. The team started slowly, as Kim Soo-kyoung and Lee Bok-soon lost the first doubles match in just 15 minutes. But team ace Kim Kyung-ryun rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Tsuji Miwa 4-3 in the second singles match, and then Kim Ji-eun and Lee Kyung-pyo finished the job with a 5-4 doubles victory. “We’ve been playing on surfaces similar to the one here at the Khalifa court, and adjusting to the local conditions is not a problem for us,” said women's tennis coach Ji Hun-su. “I am grateful for my athletes for enduring hard training playing this unpopular sport.” Soft tennis is similar to regular tennis, but uses a softer ball and lighter rackets. There is no professional circuit for soft tennis in Korea.

There are no professional judoka, either, although the sport has consistently been one of South Korea’s strongest events in international competition. At this Asiad, that storyline has continued. Hwang Hee-tae grabbed the gold medal in the men’s 90-kilogram class early yesterday. Two more silvers, by female judoka Kong Ja-young and Bae Eun-hye, came in a sport where South Korea hopes to win at least three golds. On Saturday, Jang Sung-ho got the nation’s first gold in the men’s under-100 kilogram class. Hwang upended Kazakhstan’s Maxim Rakov in a landslide. It was Hwang’s first medal in either the Olympics or Asian Games. After winning, Hwang first thanked his older sisters for their support. That’s not just because he has five of them, but because after their parents passed away in a 12-month span, Hwang’s sisters assumed the roles of mother and father for him. “They raised me to become who I am today,” Hwang said. “Whenever I was away for training camps, they would come visit and took care of me, just like our parents would have done.” Other athletes also are playing inspired. South Korean soft tennis player Kim Kyung-ryun’s mother is legally deaf, and her father has polio. She is among the mostly unheralded athletes playing sports that only come out of the woodwork every four years. But professional athletes continued to disappoint for South Korea.

The men’s basketball team, seeking its second straight Asiad gold, lost 89-75 to Iran in a preliminary game. With a 1-1 record, after an earlier win over Bahrain, South Korea is tied with Iran for second place in its six-team group, behind unbeaten Qatar. The top four finishers from two groups advance to the quarterfinals. South Korea led Iran 40-38 at half time, but its defense broke down in the third quarter, allowing 30 points. South Korea entered the final quarter trailing 68-53. The Koreans cut the gap to 81-70 on three pointers by forwards Kim Min-soo and Kim Seong-chul midway through the fourth quarter, but 19 turnovers and 38-percent shooting from the field were too much to overcome. Between late Sunday night and yesterday, South Korea added four silvers and eight bronze medals. South Kora now has four golds, eight silvers, and 15 bronzes. The medals came in men’s team table tennis, judo, shooting, cycling, men’s team soft tennis, and men’s weightlifting. The nation will look to add more medals from men’s and women’s bowling, equestrian and artistic gymnastics. by Yoo Jee-ho