Swimmer Park Tae-hwan wins 100m free at Asian championships

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- Former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan won the men's 100m freestyle race to claim his third gold medal at the Asian Swimming Championships in Tokyo on Saturday.

The South Korean led all swimmers with the time of 48.57 seconds at Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, beating Katsumi Nakamura of Japan by 0.2 seconds. Yu Hexin of China was third at 48.81.

Park, the gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, now has three gold medals at the continental championships. The 27-year-old won the 200m free on Thursday and the 400m free on the following day.

This was the first time since June 2012 that Park had bagged three gold medals in an international competition.

The Asian Swimming Championships is Park's first international race since getting shut out of medals at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. In Brazil, Park couldn't make it out of the heats in the 100m, 200m and 400m free.

Park will later race in the 1,500m free final for his fourth gold in the championships.

kdon@yna.co.kr
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