Asian Games ends in gold rush as Korea triumphs on court, pitch and field

Korea's An Se-young celebrates after beating China's Chen Yufei in the women's individual badminton final at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China on Saturday. An is the first Korean badminton player to win the women's title since 1994. [NEWS1]

Korea ended the Hangzhou Asian Games with a gold rush on Saturday, claiming six gold medals including the highly-coveted football and baseball crowns.

The six golds made for Korea’s best day of the Games and rounded off a 190-medal haul, ending the tournament with 42 gold, 59 silver and 89 bronze medals. That total leaves Korea in third place on the medal table, behind China and Japan due to the number of golds won, although by quantity alone Korea actually slightly outpaced Japan.

Korea beat Chinese Taipei 2-0 in the baseball final to claim a record fourth-consecutive title. The win was also a shot at revenge for the Korean team, as Chinese Taipei were the only team to have beaten them in the tournament prior to Saturday’s game.

Nineteen-year-old pitcher Moon Dong-ju was the hero of that game, giving up just three hits in six innings of work while striking out seven. Both runs came in the second inning — a double followed by a groundout and a sac fly, and a single paired with a double and a wild pitch — with Korea then grinding out seven innings of defense to defend the lead.

Later in the evening, the U-24 men’s football team pulled out all the stops to come from behind and beat Japan 2-1 in their final after conceding an early goal in just the second minute of the game.

Jeong Woo-yeong, who was the tournament top scorer with eight goals, tied things up in the 27th minute, with Cho Young-wook giving Korea the lead in the 60th. Those two goals, combined with some hasty defense and a fair amount of timewasting, proved to be enough, with Korea holding on to claim a third-consecutive title.

The gold rush continued on the badminton court, where An Se-young beat China’s Chen Yufei 2-1 to win Korea’s first women’s individual final since 1994. An, who was crowned world champion in August, was also responsible for Korea’s only other badminton gold at the Games, won in the women’s team contest earlier in the week.

Archer Lim Si-hyeon beat teammate An San in the women’s recurve final to take her third gold of the tournament, having also been part of the gold-medal winning women’s and mixed recurve teams.

Gold medals on Saturday also went to soft tennis player Mun Hye-gyeong, who won the women’s singles tournament in just 13 minutes, and weightlifter Park Hye-jeong, who took gold in the women’s +87-kilogram event with teammate Son Young-hee taking silver.

Swimmer Kim Woo-min and archer Lim were Korea’s two highest-medaling athletes, both with three gold medals plus an additional silver for Kim, with the pair named the Korean team’s most valuable players on Sunday.

Saturday’s gold rush capped off a solid Asian Games for team Korea.

The country’s 42 gold medals came from a wide range of sports, from long-term favorites like archery and fencing to the big team sports like football and baseball and mind games like Esports and Go.

Korea also excelled at the newer sports, with gold medals in League of Legends and Street Fighter V, silvers in break dancing and sport climbing and even a bronze in marathon swimming, as well as returning to the podium in events that have proved elusive for decades, like women’s badminton and the 4x100 relay.

As of press time, the Asian Games was due to officially finish with a closing ceremony on Sunday evening. Team Korea will then return home at the start of next, or to their respective clubs for those athletes that are currently in season and play overseas.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]