Park backed his post-heat comments Tuesday night with a gold medal in the 400, leading from the first lap to the eighth in a time of three minutes, 41.53 seconds. Two Chinese swimmers — fastest qualifier Sun Yang and Zhang Lin — won silver and bronze, respectively.
Park said it didn’t matter that he was starting in lane two final, as long as he was positive.
Despite his earlier comments, he admitted after the final that he had some pre-race concerns.
“I felt nervous swimming against Sun Yang and Zhang Lin, but I feel lucky to win the race,” Park said. “This is the result of my training this year.” The 21-year-old Park had already given South Korea its first swimming gold on Sunday with victory in the 200 freestyle in an Asian record time.
He will aim to make it three individual golds when he tries to defend his Asian Games title in the 1,500-meter race on Thursday — a feat that would give him a historic trio of freestyle wins at two straight Asian Games.
Hong Kong cyclist Wong Wan Yiu, knocked down in a multi-bike crash, finished the women’s points race to claim silver at the Asian Games velodrome behind winner Liu Xin of China.
“It was terribly painful, I could feel that there was a bike bumping against my ribs,” Wong said when asked about her tears on the podium. “I never thought to give up.” Another Hong Kong cyclist, Diao Xiao Juan, dislocated her shoulder and was among five who could not finish the race which began with 17 cyclists. The points race is 80 laps (20 kilometers) and competitors can accumulate points during eight sprints, where the action can get fast and furious.
In other track cycling events, Cho Ho-sung claimed a gold medal at four editions of the Asian Games over 16 years when he helped South Korea to victory in the team pursuit.
Cho won his first Asian Games gold in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1994. He and teammate Jang Sun-jae have won five golds overall, the most successful track cyclists in Asian Games history.
It was the 36-year-old Cho’s first Asian Games in eight years — he missed the last edition in Doha because he was racing professionally.
WTA Tour regulars Peng Shuai and Li Na led China to gold in the women’s team tennis final. Peng beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 6-3, 7-5 to give China a 1-0 lead, then former top 10 player Li beat Chan Yung-jan 6-1, 6-1 to clinch the match.
The men’s football quarterfinalists were decided when four round-of-16 matches were completed. Japan beat India 5-0, North Korea defeated Vietnam 2-0, Thailand edged Turkmenistan 1-0 in extra time and the United Arab Emirates beat Kuwait 2-0.
That set up Friday’s quarterfinal schedule: Japan vs.
Thailand, United Arab Emirates vs. North Korea, South Korea vs. Uzbekistan and Iran vs. Oman. The defending champions, Qatar, lost in the round of 16 on Monday to Uzbekistan 1-0 in extra time after squandering what should have been a certain goal earlier in extra time.
China continued to lead the gold medal race in a big way, topping the 75 mark Tuesday on the fourth day of competition, more than 50 ahead of second-place South Korea.
