South Korea capped a record-setting performance in swimming at the Asian Games with four more medals Friday, including a momentous gold medal by an ascendant freestyle swimmer.
Kim Woo-min's gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle was the highlight of the final day of swimming at the 19th Asiad in Hangzhou on Friday. It was Kim's third gold here, making him the first triple gold medalist for South Korea at this Asiad. He is also the third South Korean swimmer to grab three gold medals at a single Asiad.
At the start of the evening, Choi Dong-yeol claimed bronze in the men's 50m backstroke with a national record time of 26.93 seconds.
Lee Ju-ho followed that with silver in the men's 200m backstroke, also setting a new national record with 1:56.54.
After Kim's gold, the women's 4x100m medley relay team raced to silver in 4:00.13, a new national record by more than three seconds. The team of Lee Eun-ji, Ko Haru, Kim Seo-yeong and Hur Yeon-kyung gave South Korea its 22th swimming medal in Hangzhou.
South Korea ended the swimming competition with six golds, six silvers and 10 bronzes. South Korea finished with one more gold medal than Japan, which outpaced South Korea 19-1 in the gold medal count at the 2018 Asian Games.
South Korea won only six medals five years ago. Its previous record for most swimming medals at an Asian Games had been 13 from the 2010 competition in Guangzhou, China.
South Korean swimmers here broke national records in 12 events, with Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon and Yang Jae-hoon shattering the Asian record to win gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay in 7:01.73.
Hwang broke his own Korean record to win the 200m freestyle title in 1:44.40. He won a medal in all six races he entered, and set Korean records in five of those six events.
Baek In-chul pulled off a rare feat of setting a Korean record in the heats for the men's 50m butterfly Thursday morning and then breaking it less than 12 hours later in the final, en route to a stunning gold medal.
South Korea competed in six relay races here and won a medal in every one of them.
Source: Yonhap News Agency