Beijing, Aug 10: South Korea's Park Tae-hwan won the Olympic gold medal in the men's swimming 400m freestyle on Sunday.

Park became the first South Korean to claim an Olympic swimming gold, underlining his supremacy in the men's 400m freestyle in 3:41.86, well off Australian Ian Thorpe's world record 3:40.08. Zhang Lin grabbed silver for hosts China in 3:42.44 while the fastest man of the heats, American Larsen Jensen, had to be content with bronze in 3:42.78.

Park, who won the event at the world championships in Melbourne last year, said he went into the race without a specific strategy. "I thought at first I shouldn't lag behind the other swimmers too much, so I could keep pace with the others."

OneIndia News