Park may skip 1,500 meter at Worlds

Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan will likely not compete in the 1,500-meter freestyle event at the 2011 Shanghai World Swimming Championships in July in order to focus on the 200- and 400-meter events instead.

“It’s not for certain yet but it’s most likely that Park will not compete in the 1,500-meter event at the World Championships,” an SK Telecom Sports official said yesterday. “He is also thinking about competing in the 800-meter event as well.”

Park is set to train with the national swim team at the National Training Center today before leaving for Australia for his overseas training camp early next month.

Sun Yang of China placed first in the event at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games with a time of 14 minutes, 35.43 seconds, while Park finished second almost 30 seconds later.

Yonhap