VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 20. AFTER hanging in American Erik Vendt’s hip pocket throughout the entire race in the 1500-meter freestyle, Korea’s Tae Hwan Park began closing the gap at the 1250-meter mark before taking the lead for good at the 1400-meter mark en route to a gold-winning 15:06.11.
Trailing by .17 seconds at the 1250-meter mark, Park poured on the steam through the next 150 meters to take a .02 second lead at the 1400-meter mark. He then pushed the advantage to .54 seconds at the 1450-meter mark before closing out the win by more than a second over Vendt.
Meanwhile, Vendt closed out the race with a 15:07.17 to earn silver ahead of Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda’s bronze-medal 15:08.97.
Notably, American Larsen Jensen dodged a bullet as his 15:11.11 set during the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships held up against the rest of the American efforts on Sunday. Jensen was the main notable exception from the U.S. Pan Pacifics roster as the Trojan Swim Club member elected to forgo his spot in the 1500-meter freestyle due to sickness during his training regime.
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