A fierce race is expected from the men's freestyle 200m race, the first swimming event at the pending 17th Asian Games, on Sept. 21 at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center.

The hosts are hoping to see 'Marine Boy' Park Tae-hwan of South Korea defend his title for the third time against Sun Yang of China and Kosuke Hagino of Japan at the Incheon Games to be running from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

Park and Sun have shared a healthy rivalry over the years. At the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Park defended his title from 2006 Doha, while Sun took second place. Two years later at the London Olympics, they both clocked 1:44.93 and shared silver.

Meanwhile, Hagino, who is originally an individual medley specialist, has recently started to race in the freestyle and backstroke events as well. He set a new record for the men's freestyle event at the Japanese Championships in April, which was also held as trials for the Asian Games. More recently, at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, he came in second after Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia, to become the fastest Asian at the event.