Park Jae-hun takes bronze in newly-added marathon swimming event

Swimmers take their mark at the start of the men's 10-kilometer marathon swimming race at the Swimming Course in Chun'an, China on Saturday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Park Jae-hun finished third in the men’s 10-kilometer marathon swimming race on Saturday morning, edging out the competition by just nine seconds to claim the bronze medal.

Park crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 56 minutes and 0.3 seconds at the CSC Swimming Course in Chun’an, China, finishing 14.5 seconds behind winner Zhang Ziyang of China and 13 seconds behind second-place Lan Tianchen, also of China.

Japan’s Taishin Minamide came in fourth, with Taipei’s Cho Cheng-Chi 0.1 seconds behind him.

Marathon swimming is the only serious long distance swimming event in the Asian Games, taking place over a grueling 10-kilometer open water course. Despite the significant distance involved, races are still often decided by just a matter as the entire pack stays close together for the majority of the race.

Just 24 seconds separated the leading five racers on Saturday, with a two-minute gap before the majority of the racers started to cross the line. Korea’s Sung Jun-ho brought up the rear with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 50.5 seconds.

Park’s bronze medal is Korea’s only medal in marathon swimming this year. The event was newly-added at the Games this year, with China taking four of the six available medals.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]