World champion James Magnussen took his winning streak to 14 in the 100m freestyle as South Korea's Olympic champion Park Tae-Hwan posted the year's third-fastest time in the 400m at the New South Wales Championships in Sydney on Friday.
The Australian, who was last beaten in the 100m sprint at the corresponding event 12 months ago, swam 49.02secs to beat Cameron McEvoy (49.44).
Magnussen's time was nearly a second slower than the one he posted at last month's South Australian State Championships which he put down to his heavy training schedule ahead of next month's Olympic trials in Adelaide.
"It's bloody terrible, it's not enjoyable," Magnussen said on seeing his time.
"I hate racing when I can't race my best so when I look up and see 49.0 it's like 'can we do it again?'
"We're at the end of our four-week block of training so that freshness certainly isn't there.
"Every time I go out I want to be swimming 47secs and smashing races and stuff like that.
"It is disappointing but I know that's where I am and I executed my race plan okay."
Park, who aims to break the 400m freestyle world record at July's London Olympics, led from start to finish winning in 3:45.57 -- a time that places him third fastest in the world in 2012.
Beijing triple gold medallist Stephanie Rice, who has had a disrupted preparation with a shoulder injury, finished second to Samantha Hamill in the 400m individual medley.
Hamill hit the wall first in 4:40.21 while Rice finished a body length back in 4:42.29.
Nick D'Arcy, competing for the first time since defeating Michael Phelps at the Santa Clara Grand Prix in California last year, posted the fastest international 200m butterfly time of the year, touching in 1:56.90.
Melanie Schlanger won the women's 100m freestyle in 53.74secs with Libby Trickett seventh in 55.54.
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