Baseball and soccer won gold medals at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, marking the fourth consecutive and third consecutive victories for the sports respectively.
South Korea’s football team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, came from behind to beat arch-rivals Japan 2-1 in the men’s football final at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games on Sunday at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province.
With the victory, South Korea became the first country in Asian Games history to win three consecutive men’s soccer titles.
Korea got off to a shaky start, conceding a goal to Japan’s Gotaro Uchino in the second minute of the first half, but equalized on a header by Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) in the 27th minute.
In the second half, which started at 1-1, Cho Young-wook (Gimcheon) scored the game-winning goal in the 11th minute.
South Korea, which defeated North Korea in the final of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, defeated Japan 2-1 in the final for the second consecutive time in the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.
The baseball team, coached by Ryu Jung-il, also defeated Chinese Taipei 2-0 in the final at the Baseball and Softball Sports Center 1 in Shaoxing.
With the victory, South Korean baseball won its fourth consecutive Asian Games gold medal, dating back to Guangzhou in 2010.
Moon Dong-joo (HW) pitched six shutout innings and Korea scored two runs in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Kim Joo-won (NC) and a wild pitch.
Ko Woo-seok (LG) came on in the ninth and faced back-to-back singles, but threw the next batter out at second base to preserve the win.
In archery, there was a triple crown for the first time in 37 years.
Lim Im-hyun (Korea Gymnastics University) defeated Ansan (Gwangju Women’s University) by a set score of 6-0 in the final of the women’s recurve individual competition at the archery range of the Fuyang Inhu Sports Center on Sunday.
The Korean archer, who also won the mixed team and women’s team events, became a triple medalist at the Games.
This is the first time in 37 years that an Asian Games archer has won three titles since Yang Chang-hoon (four), Kim Jin-ho and Park Jung-ah (three) at the 1986 Seoul Games.
Badminton world No. 1 Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) won the individual singles and team titles to become the tournament’s two-time champion.
Ahn defeated world No. 3 Chen Yufei (CHN) 2-1 (21-18 17-21 21-8) in the women’s singles final at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou on Sunday.
It is only the second time in 29 years that a South Korean player has won the women’s singles title at an Asian Games after Suh Bang-hyun at the 1994 Hiroshima Games.
Ahn received medical attention for a sore right knee during the first set and dropped the second set in a nervy affair, but she bounced back to win the third set 21-8 to clinch the gold medal.
Korea added gold medals in soft tennis women’s singles Moon Hye-kyung (NH Bank) and weightlifting women’s 87㎏ and above Park Hye-jeong (Goyang City Hall) one day before the Games concluded on Monday.
Moon and Park gave Korea its only gold medals of the Games in soft tennis and weightlifting, respectively.
It has been 13 years since a South Korean athlete won an Asian Games gold medal in weightlifting, when Vice Minister of Culture Jang Jang-ran won in Guangzhou in 2010.
South Korea is third in the medal standings with 42 gold, 59 silver and 89 bronze medals.
It easily achieved its pre-opening goal of third place overall, but failed to reach its target of 50 gold medals.
China tops the medal table with 200 gold medals, followed by Japan with 51 gold medals.
This is the first time China has won 200 gold medals at a Summer Asian Games. China last won 199 gold medals at the 2010 Games in Guangzhou. 스포츠토토