Kim Woo-min nabs third gold as Korea closes out pool strong

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Published: 29 Sep. 2023, 22:51

Kim Woo-min nabs third gold as Korea closes out pool strong

Korea's Kim Woo-min took gold in the men's 400 meter freestyle on Friday, his third of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. [YONHAP]

Korea closed out its final day in the pool with four medals — one gold, two silver and one bronze — ending its swimming schedule with 22 total medals in the sport in Hangzhou, China on Friday.

In the sole gold-medal effort of the night, Korea’s Kim Woo-min took gold in the men’s 400 meter freestyle on Friday, beating China’s Pan Zhanle and Vietnam’s Huy Hoang Nguyen who took silver and bronze, respectively.

Korea take 2 gold, 2 silver and a bronze as records fall in the pool

Kim finished with a time of 3 minutes and 44.36 seconds, well ahead of Pan’s 3 minutes and 48.81 seconds and Nguyen’s 3 minutes and 49.16 seconds. It was the 22-year-old Korean swimmer’s third gold medal at this year’s Asian Games.

He earlier won gold alongside teammates Yang Jae-hoon, Lee Ho-joon and Hwang Sun-woo in the men’s 4x200 meter freestyle relay on Monday and the men’s individual 800 meter freestyle on Thursday to claim both the Asian and Games record.

Kim’s win was followed by Lee Ju-ho’s silver-medal finish in the men’s 200 meter backstroke, coming behind China’s Xu Jiayu but beating Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara.

Lee finished with a time of 1 minutes and 56.54 seconds, placing him solidly between Xu’s 1 minutes and 55.37 seconds and Takehara’s 1 minutes and 57.63 seconds.

Lee, 28, also won Korea four medals at this year’s Asiad, taking bronze in the men’s 100 meter backstroke to meet his third-place finish at the 2018 Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Earlier, Korea’s Choi Dong-gyeol took bronze in the men’s 50 meter breaststroke on Friday, coming a hair behind silver-medalist Sun Jiajun, of China.

Choi finished with a time of 26.93 seconds, narrowly losing to Sun, who finished with 26.92 seconds. China’s Qin Haiyang took gold with a time of 26.35 seconds, an Asian Games record.

And in the last swimming heat of the Asian Games, the Korean women’s 4x100 meter medley team came from behind to take silver in the final round.

The squad of Lee Eun-ji, Ko Ha-ru, Kim Seo-yeong and Hur Yeon-kyung finished with a time of 4 minutes and 00.13 seconds, behind China’s 3 minutes and 57.67 seconds but ahead of Hong Kong’s 4 minutes and 01.72 seconds.

Kim, swimming the third leg, pulled ahead of Hong Kong to take third place and Hur, the anchor, further narrowed the gap to finish second.

With 22 total medals — six gold, six silver and 10 bronze — Korea crushed its last Asian Games performance in the pool when it won just six medals — one gold, one silver and four bronze.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]