Swimmer Park Tae-hwan grabs silver in 1,500m at U.S. competition

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan snatched
silver in the 1,500m freestyle at a U.S. competition, its organizer said Monday,
brightening his prospects in the event which has been his weaker point.

Park, who has been training in the United States for over a month, finished the
1,500m competition with a time of 14 minutes and 57.06 seconds. He trailed behind
Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli, 1500m freestyle gold medalist at the Beijing
Olympics, the 2009 Janet Evans Invitational's Web site said.
The teenage swimmer, who snatched the 400m men's freestyle gold and the 200m
silver in Beijing last year, has been trying to upgrade his endurance in the
longer event.
The test will come at the World Championship in Rome in July.
Park took the gold in the 200m freestyle and a silver at the 400m competition in
the U.S. tournament which he chose as a chance to assess his performance ahead of
the major event.
He was the first South Korean to earn gold at the last year's championship
tournament in Melbourne.
brk@yna.co.kr
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