LONDON (Yonhap News) ― Michael Bohl, the Australian-born coach of South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan, said here Monday his protege could break the world record in his best event, the 400-meter freestyle, at the upcoming London Olympics.

“I think it’s possible,” Bohl said, at the end of Park’s second day of training at the Aquatics Centre here, five days before the July 27-Aug. 12 Summer Games. “What we’re going to do with Tae-hwan in the next five days is to make sure he’s keeping himself relaxed.”

Park will compete in three races in London and he is the reigning Olympic gold medalist and also a two-time world champion in 400 meters.

The 400 event will be the first of Park’s three, with the heat scheduled for Saturday morning and the final, should he make it, set for Saturday evening.

Park has openly spoken about his desire to break the three-year-old 400-meter world record of 3 minutes, 40.07 seconds, held by Paul Biedermann of Germany.

He will have to contend with two other world class swimmers.

Sun Yang of China owns the fastest 400-meter free time this year at 3:42.31, about two full seconds ahead of Park. Biedermann hasn’t come close to matching his world record, which was set during the height of high-tech, polyurethane swimsuits, but Bohl said the German is still capable of breaking the world record.

The coach added he doesn’t believe Park is entirely focused on the record.

“It’d be nice if he can do that (break the world mark),” Bohl said. “I think what he’s really got to think is putting together the best 400 he can. If he can do that, he will have a chance of doing everything.”

Bohl has been with the 22-year-old South Korean since early 2010, and helped Park rebound from a disappointing performance at the 2009 world championships in Rome. Barely a year out from winning the 400-meter gold and 200-meter silver at the Beijing Olympics, Park crashed out of heats in all three races he entered in Rome.

Park under watchful eyes

LONDON (Yonhap News) ― Grooming a precocious teenage swimmer into a world-beater with an Olympic gold and two world championships requires more than just hard, physical training.

Park Tae-hwan, the 22-year-old South Korean swimming star, has had the benefit of coaching by Michael Bohl, the Australian native who has previously worked with other Olympic champions. But Park, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter freestyle, has also been under the watchful eyes of his physical trainer and a nutrition expert who have put together a promising formula for the July 27-Aug. 12 London Games.

Kwon Tae-hyun, Park’s trainer for about three years, insisted the swimmer has been improving physically over the past two years, covering three major international events.

“Park was in better shape at the 2011 world championships in Shanghai than he was at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou,” Kwon said. “But now he’s even better than he was before Shanghai.”

In Guangzhou, Park claimed 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle races, signaling a turnaround from the disappointing results from the 2009 world championships in Rome. He had failed to reach the finals in all three events he entered in Italy, with only about a year removed from the gold medal-winning race in Beijing.

After the triple-gold performance in Guangzhou, Park completed his comeback to dominance in emphatic fashion in Shanghai, taking his second world title in the 400-meter free following the maiden crown four years earlier in Melbourne.

Kwon noted that Park has improved his flexibility and built more muscle in recent years.