Park Tae-hwan sets season’s world record in freestyle

Park Tae-hwan, dubbed “Marine Boy,” set on Wednesday this season’s world record with a time of 1:45:25 (previous record of this season was 1:45:46) at the final of men’s 200-meter freestyle competition at the MBC Cup national swimming championships, which also select national swimming team members. Park, who was the champion in this category at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, failed to break Korea’s national record of 1:44:80 that he set himself in Guangzhou. Since he has seen his physical and mental conditions improve lately, however, analysts say that chances are high that he will win the gold medal in three consecutive events at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games in September.