Park, Sun to resume rivalry at the pool

Incheon: South Korea’s swimming superstar Park Tae-hwan and China’s rising star Sun Yang are expected to extend their long-standing rivalry as they vie for honours in the men’s freestyle 200-metre race at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Centre at the Asian Games, starting here September 19.

Two-time defending champion Park had won the race in Guangzhou ahead of Sun while the duo had shared second-place after clocking one minute 44.93 seconds at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Going into the race, Park will be the firm favourite as the local crowd will root for him but the 24-year-old needs to wary of Sun and Kosuke Hagino of Japan.

Hagino, though, has recently started to race in the freestyle and backstroke events and has already proved his mettle after setting a new record for the men’s freestyle event at the Japanese Championships in April, which was also held as trials for the Asian Games.

The 20-year-old gave further proof of his credentials as he came second after Australian Thomas Fraser-Holmes, to become the fastest Asian, at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships.

The venue is named after South Korea’s first-ever swimming gold medallist, Park Tae Hwan. Park won the 400 free in Beijing in 2008.

The Aquatics Center was one of the first completed facilities of the 10 new athletic venues being erected for the Games and will seat just over 3,000 spectators, and its appearance was designed to evoke images of a swimmer “cleaving through the water while swimming.”

The venue will host the swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming portions of the Asian Games, which will take place this coming September.