[Asian Games] Today's Matches: Swimming Kim Woo-min Wins 3 Golds, Fencing Yoon Ji-su Challenges for 2 Golds

Last Day of Swimming and Fencing... Seven Days of Intense Athletics Begin
Gold Medal Battle in LoL with Taiwan... Women's Basketball Inter-Korean Match

The final day of swimming and fencing, which led South Korea's early medal race at the Asian Games, will take place. The athletics events, which have the most medals at stake, will begin their seven-day competition.

In swimming, Kim Woo-min aims for a triple crown, while in fencing, women's sabre fencer Yoon Ji-su challenges for her second title.

Swimming has already secured 5 gold, 4 silver, and 9 bronze medals, achieving the best performance in South Korean swimming history at the Asian Games. The previous best was 4 gold, 3 silver, and 6 bronze medals at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Kim Woo-min (center) is taking a commemorative photo with Fei Liwei of China (left), who won the silver medal, and Nguyen Huy Hoang of Vietnam, who won the bronze medal, after winning the gold medal in the men's 800m freestyle swimming event at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games on the 28th.
Photo by Yonhap News

The gold medalists for the last seven swimming freestyle events will be decided.

Kim Woo-min will compete in his main event, the 400m freestyle, the event he is most confident in. At the World Championships, Kim was the only Asian swimmer to reach the finals in the 400m freestyle last year and this year, finishing 6th and 5th respectively. If he wins gold, Kim Woo-min will become the third Korean swimmer to achieve a triple crown, following Choi Yun-hee and Park Tae-hwan. Choi Yun-hee achieved this at the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games, and Park Tae-hwan at the 2006 Doha and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Kim Woo-min won his second gold medal the day before by defeating China's Fei Liwei in the 800m freestyle, avenging his loss in the 1500m freestyle.

Jo Seong-jae and Choi Dong-yeol, who contributed to the silver medal in the men's 400m medley relay by participating in both the preliminaries and finals, will compete in the men's 50m breaststroke. Han Da-gyeong, who swam the anchor leg in the women's 800m relay and won bronze the day before, will compete in the women's 800m freestyle. Lee Joo-ho will compete in the men's 200m backstroke. He won consecutive bronze medals in the 100m backstroke and a silver in the men's 400m medley relay at this competition. The men's 50m butterfly, where Baek In-cheol surprised with a gold medal the day before, will feature women's 50m and men's 200m butterfly events. Jung So-eun and Moon Seung-woo will compete respectively. Swimming preliminaries start at 11 a.m., and finals begin at 8:30 p.m.

Fencing will conclude its six-day schedule with the women's sabre team and men's ?p?e team events.

Fencing has so far won 6 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze medals, matching the gold and silver medal counts of the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games (6 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze). With additional gold medals, they can approach the 2014 Incheon Asian Games record (8 gold, 6 silver, 1 bronze). The women's sabre team aims for a three-peat, while the men's ?p?e team seeks to reclaim gold after nine years.

The women's sabre team event will hold the quarterfinals at 11 a.m., semifinals at 3:30 p.m., and finals at 7 p.m. The men's ?p?e team will face Kuwait in the round of 16 at 1 p.m., followed by quarterfinals at 3:30 p.m., semifinals at 5 p.m., and finals at 7:35 p.m.

Yoon Ji-su of the women's sabre fencing team is cheering after securing the gold medal in the women's sabre individual final at the Hangzhou Asian Games on the 26th.
Photo by Yonhap News

The athletics events with the most medals at stake begin. On the first day, starting at 8 a.m., gold medals will be awarded in five events including the men's and women's 20km race walk, women's hammer throw, women's shot put, and women's 10,000m. South Korea's Choi Byung-kwang will compete in the men's 20km race walk; Park Seo-jin and Kim Tae-hee in the women's hammer throw final; and Jung Yoo-sun and Lee Soo-jung in the women's shot put final. The hammer throw and shot put events start at 8:10 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., respectively.

On the track, the men's and women's 400m preliminaries start at 8 p.m., followed by the 100m preliminaries at 10 p.m. Kim Ui-yeon will compete in the men's 400m, Lee Jae-sung and Lee Simon in the men's 100m, and Kim Da-eun in the women's 100m.

Table tennis continues with the round of 16 in singles and doubles. The mixed doubles semifinals will also be held. The pairs Jang Woo-jin?Jeon Ji-hee and Lim Jong-hoon?Shin Yu-bin will both compete against China for a spot in the finals. Their matches are scheduled for 8:10 p.m. and 8:55 p.m., respectively.

Jang Woo-jin, Lim Jong-hoon, and Shin Yu-bin will each play three matches today. Shin Yu-bin will play the singles round of 16 at 11 a.m., then the women's doubles with Jeon Ji-hee at 5 p.m., before the mixed doubles semifinal. Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon will play the men's doubles round of 16 at 12:30 p.m., then the singles round of 16 at 6:10 p.m.

In women's basketball, a North-South Korea showdown is scheduled. Five years ago, at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, the two competed as a unified team and won silver, but this time they will face each other. The game starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center. Women's basketball aims for gold for the first time in nine years since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. South Korea defeated Thailand 90-56 in their opening game on the 27th, while North Korea beat Taiwan 91-77 in their first match.

South Korea's national eSports team player 'Faker' Lee Sang-hyeok
[Photo by Yonhap News]

In eSports, the League of Legends national team led by 'Faker' Lee Sang-hyeok will play the final against Taiwan at 8 p.m.

The women's sepak takraw regu team will compete against Thailand for the gold medal at 10 a.m.

The men's and women's badminton teams will play their quarterfinal team matches against Indonesia and the Maldives, respectively. The women's team match is at 10 a.m., and the men's team match is at 6 p.m.