South Korea grabbed six gold medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, the penultimate day of the continental competition, with the men’s football team putting an exclamation mark with the country’s fourth consecutive title.
With South Korea not expected to win a medal in the lone event left Sunday in equestrian, the country will likely finish the event with 39 gold medals, well behind China (169) and Japan (83).
Archer Lee Woo-seok became South Korea fifth double gold medalist at this Asiad, as he took the men’s individual title in recurve on Saturday to add to his men’s team gold from the previous day.
Earlier in the day, Oh Ye-jin took silver in the women’s individual recurve event. South Korea failed to win a women’s recurve archery gold for the first time, having earlier settled for silver in the women’s team event, too.
South Korea finished the archery competition with three gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals — tied with India in total but finishing with two fewer gold medals than the emerging force in archery.
The 15-year-old sailor Choi Ji-un became South Korea’s youngest gold medalist at this year’s Asiad on Saturday, when he won the boys’ dingy title.
PGA Tour star Kim Joo-hyung eased to the men’s golf gold medal, shooting a six-under 64 in the final round for a three-shot victory over Kazuki Higa of Japan.
South Korea earned its first gold medal in the kyorugi (sparring) discipline of taekwondo on Saturday, where Song Da-bin defeated Mu Wenzhe of China to win the women’s +67-kilogram title.
South Korea had four practitioners in action in taekwondo on Saturday but Kim Yu-jin, the 2024 Olympic champion, was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the women’s 57kg event while Kang Sang-hyun (men’s +80kg) and Mun Jin-ho (men’s -68kg) each grabbed a bronze medal following their losses in the semifinals.
Seo Chae-hyun earned her first Asian Games gold medal Saturday, winning the women’s lead event as the only climber in the final to earn the “Top” score — meaning, she successfully clipped her rope into the final quickdraw and controlled the last hold.
Another South Korean climber, Lee Do-hyun, picked up bronze in the men’s lead.
The stage was set for the men’s football team in South Korea’s last medal event of Saturday, and they delivered the gold medal thanks to Eom Ji-sung’s 61st-minute goal.
Despite this frenetic push on Saturday, South Korea will likely fall short of its initial target of at least 40 gold medals.
The 20th Asian Games will wrap up Sunday with the closing ceremony. (Yonhap)