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

(ATTN: UPDATES with Park's comment, ADDS his record in paras 3-4)
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 that has been his weak point.

Park, who has been training in the U.S. 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, the 1500m freestyle gold medalist at the Beijing
Olympics, the 2009 Janet Evans Invitational's Web site said.
"I'm so happy that I got a better time than I expected," said Park after the
competition. "I'll do my best to break my own record in the World Championship
tournament."
His personal record in the 1,500m event is 14 minutes and 55.03 seconds, set in
the Asian Games in 2006.
The teenager, who snatched the 400m men's freestyle gold and the 200m silver in
Beijing last year, has been trying to increase his endurance in the longer event.
The next 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 took 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
(END)