SEOUL // Park Tae-hwan, South Korea's Olympic 400-metre freestyle champion, will take the plunge in the 100m free at next month's Fina world Championships in Shanghai.
The 21 year old, also a silver medallist in the 200m at the 2008 Beijing Games, will be dipping his toes in the 100 metre at a world championships or Olympics for the first time.
"Park posted better times than the world championship qualifying time of 49.23 seconds," his management said yesterday. "Park's coach, Michael Bohl, granted his wish to compete in the 100 metres."
Park, who claimed an Asian Games 100m-200m-400m treble in Guangzhou in November, will swim all three distances at the July 16-31 World Championships.
The South Korean, nicknamed "Marine Boy" in his homeland, beat multiple Olympic champion Michael Phelps in the 100m in California last weekend.
Park was scheduled to return to Brisbane, Australia yesterday to rejoin Bohl and tune up for the world championships, Yonhap news reported.