You are working on Staging2

Park Scratches 100 Free Final To Focus On 400 At Arena PSS – Atlanta

2017 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES – ATLANTA

After achieving a FINA ‘A’ cut of 48.62 this morning in the 100 freestyle, South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan has withdrawn from the final of that race to focus solely on the 400 free tonight at the Arena Pro Series stop in Atlanta.  South Korea is using this meet as a World Championship qualifier, so his 100 swim this morning qualifies him for Budapest in that event. His scratch moves Israel’s David Gamburg (50.63) into the A-final.

Park had the top prelim time in both events. The two are back-to-back, with the 100 free ‘A’ final scheduled just 20 minutes before the 400 final making Park’s decision a no-brainer. After cruising to the top 400 seed in 3:51.62, he’ll look to crack the ‘A’ standard of 3:48.15 tonight. Based on the form he has shown since Rio, that time should be attainable.

The other ‘A’ final scratch for day 2 finals came from Mallory Comerford, who has scratched the women’s 100 fly to focus solely on the 100 free. She was 6th this morning in 59.56. Veronica Burchill (59.88) moves into the A-final.

Comerford also scratched the 400 free ‘B’ final after going 4:19.38 this morning for 15th place. The other ‘B’ final scratches came from Blake Pieroni in the 100 fly, Gunnar Bentz in the 100 free, and Courtney Harnish in the 100 fly. All three have done so to focus on an ‘A’ final, with Pieroni in the 100 free, Bentz in the 100 fly and Harnish in the 400 free.

Also of note, it was reported early this morning that Penny Oleksiak had unexpectedly scratched for the weekend. CBC has reported this was due to family reasons.

In This Story

7
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ct swim fan
7 years ago

Why is his first name listed as Park sometimes and Tae Hwan sometimes. By the way, Which is correct?

SunPark
Reply to  ct swim fan
7 years ago

Park is his last name (family name).
Tae Hwan is his first name.
His former coach, Bohl calls him Parky.

Captain Awesome
Reply to  ct swim fan
7 years ago

I could be wrong but it could be due to naming conventions in Korea like in some other Asian countries. In western countries we use (given name)(family name) whereas in some Asian countries it is the other way round. So some people put his name in a different order taking this into account and putting his name in an order that we as westerners would be more used to seeing.

Captain Awesome
Reply to  Captain Awesome
7 years ago

I’m not sure if any of that was coherent.

ct swim fan
Reply to  James Sutherland
7 years ago

So Tae Hwan would be his first name and Park his last name using the way we list peoples names?

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

Read More »