Park takes on Thorpe's mantle

By Alan Baldwin

BEIJING (Reuters) - Park Tae-hwan gave South Korea their first Olympic swimming gold medal on Sunday and took on retired Australian Ian Thorpe's mantle as men's 400 meters freestyle champion.

The world champion was quickest off the block and, despite trailing powerful Australian Grant Hackett at the first turn, hit the front at the 150 mark and stayed ahead to touch home in 3:41.86.

China's crowd favorite Zhang Lin took the silver medal, 0.58 behind, with Larsen Jensen of the United States winning bronze.

Thorpe was the king of the 400 for most of the past decade, winning every major event he entered between the 1998 world championships and 2004 Games before retiring in 2006 and spurning the chance to win three Olympic titles in a row.

His 2002 record of 3:40.08 remained intact with none of Sunday's contenders coming close to breaking it at the Water Cube.

Hackett, who has spent much of his career following in Thorpe's wake in the 400 despite his dominance in the 1,500, had hoped to seize his moment but it was not to be.

The Australian started strongly but could not maintain the pace, falling back to sixth at the finish.

"Of course, if you're not on the podium it's always disappointing, I gave it 100 percent in preparation, I can't regret any of that," he said.

"I thought I'd go quicker, at the end of the day it was a tough race. Not much I can do about it now. I wish I could have gone quicker."

(Additional reporting by Martin Petty, editing by Greg Stutchbury)