Phelps gets first gold and record, Park makes history (1st Lead)

Aug 10, 2008, 2:38 GMT

Beijing - Michael Phelps of the United States smashed his 400 metres medley world record on Sunday to win the first of a possible eight Beijing Olympics swimming gold medals.

A few minutes later Park Tae-Hwan got a historic first gold for South Korea in the sport when he added the Olympic title to his success at the 2007 worlds.

Phelps' time of 4 minutes 3.84 seconds beat the previous mark of 4:05.25 he swam on June 29 at the US trials in Omaha. It was his seventh Olympic gold overall and a 23rd world record.

Hungarian Laszlo Cseh got silver in a European record 4:06.16.

Phelps' friend and compatriot Ryan Lochte won the bronze medal in 4:08.09 in front of a huge crowd including US President George W Bush.

Phelps is going for an unprecedented eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. The 23-year-old needs just three more wins in Beijing to become the leading all-time Olympian with 10 gold.

Park, meanwhile, pulled away from his rivals to underline his freestyle supremacy in 3:41.86, well off Ian Thorpe's world record 3:40.08 minutes.

Zhang Lin got silver for hosts China in 3:42.44 while the fastest man of the heats, American Larsen Jensen, had to be content with bronze in 3:42.78.

The remaining two finals Sunday were the women's 400 freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.