Park eliminated in 400m, Swedish sensation Sjostrom sets record

ROME - South Korean defending champion Park Taehwan Sunday failed to make it to the finals of the 400 metres freestyle at the world championships, while the first championship record of the meet belonged to Swedish teenager Sarah Sjostrom.

Sunday saw the first day of competition in the swimming section of the world championships, which are being held in Rome from July 17 to Aug 2.

In the biggest upset of the morning, Park, who also took the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last year, finished in a time of 3 minutes 46.04 seconds, placing him 12th - far off the pace of the eight-fastest swimmers who made the final.

The fastest time in the heats was registered by German Paul Biedermann, who swam a time of 3:43.01, setting a new European record.

The first championship record of the meet belonged to 15-year-old Swedish sensation Sjostrom in the ninth heat of the first event, when she swam a 56.76 in the women’s 100m butterfly.

Her time beat the previous record held by Libby Trickett set in Melbourne two years ago by .49 seconds.

The Handen-born swimmer first made international waves last year when she won the same event in the European long course championships in a time of 58.44.

In the women’s 200m individual medley Hungarian Katinka Hosszu broke the championship record held by American Katie Hoff, when she won in a time of 2:09.12, taking just over a second off the previous best mark of 2:10.13.

Hosszu’s record was broken shortly afterwards by American Ariana Kukors, who managed a 2:08.53, just eight hundredth off Stephanie Rice’s world record.

The final of the men’s and women’s 400m freestyle, as well as the men’s and women’s 4×100m freestyle relay will be held later Sunday.