South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan beat American great Michael Phelps for the first time in a California meet on Saturday.
Park finished first in the men's 100-meter freestyle final of the Santa Clara International Grand Prix in California with a record time of 48.92 seconds.
The 21-year-old defeated Phelps who touched in 49.61 seconds. Graeme Moore of the United States came in third at 49.70 seconds.
Seoul swimming officials have said the race will be Park's tune-up meet before the FINA World Aquatics Championships in July in Shanghai, China. Park's time, however, was only 0.22 seconds behind his personal record of 48.70 seconds set at last year's Guangzhou Asian Games.
In the men's 400-meter freestyle final that closely followed, Park also won with a comfortable victory, touching in 3 minutes and 44.99 seconds.
He was more than five seconds faster than the runner-up, Canada's Ryan Cochrane.
Park is set to race in the men's 200-meter and 50-meter freestyle events on Sunday and the men's 200-meter mixed style on Monday, the last day of the meet. (Yonhap News)
