Former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan collected his third gold medal in a local competition Wednesday with the fourth best time of the season in the men's 400-meter freestyle as he continues to rally in his first competitive swimming in 18 months. 

At the 88th Dong-A Swimming Competition in Gwangju, some 330 kilometers south of Seoul, Park finished first in the 400m free with a time of 3 minutes, 44.26 seconds. It was his third gold medal in the competition at the Nambu University International Aquatics Center after winning the 1,500m free on Monday and 200m free on Tuesday. 

The swimming contest, which also serves as the second round of national team trials for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, is Park's first competition since the National Sports Festival in November 2014. After testing positive for testosterone, the 26-year-old served an 18-month international doping suspension that began retroactively in September 2014 and ended in March this year.

Park's time in the 400m was well short of his personal best of 3:41.53 set at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games in China, but it was the fourth best time recorded in the world this season. Mack Horton of Australia holds this season's best time at 3:41.65, followed by British swimmer James Guy at 3:43.84 and Italy's Gabriele Detti at 3:43.97. 

The 400m free has been Park's main event. He triumphed in the 400m free at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won the silver medal at the 2012 London Summer Games. He also has two world championship titles. 

His time on Wednesday was also enough to pass the "A" Olympic qualifying standards of 3:50.44 set by FINA, the world swimming governing body. For a country to qualify two swimmers in each Olympic individual swimming event, both swimmers must beat the designated A standard time. If there are no swimmers that can meet the A cut, a country will be held to just one swimmer who meets the "B" standard time. 

But Park, who is the only South Korean, male or female, with an Olympic swimming medal, has already been ruled ineligible for the Rio Games by the Korean Olympic Committee regardless of his performance. Under the national sports body's rule on the national team selection process, athletes who have served doping suspensions aren't allowed to represent the country for three years, starting on the day their bans end.  

The KOC, despite facing criticism of double punishment, has stated it wouldn't create exceptions for particular athletes.

However, it is likely that Park's Olympic-qualifying performance at the Dong-A competition will fuel public debate on the KOC's decision to rule out the swimmer for the Rio Games. Park had also qualified for the A standard time in both the 1,500m and the 200m free. 

Park will swim his final event, the 100m free, on Thursday. (Yonhap)