(Nagoya = Yonhap News) Reporter Kyung-yoon Kim and Myeong-eon Oh = Even on the last day of the Chuseok holiday, the golden fortune of the Korean national team players continued.
The Korean baseball team achieved the feat of winning five consecutive Asian Games gold medals, and 17-year-old high school student Kang Jun-i (Seoul Yeongdeungpo High School) was named the first gold medalist in Korean skateboarding history.
In addition, 37-year-old veteran Nam Dong-heon regained Korean equestrian supremacy after 12 years, and the women's handball and fencing women's saber teams also defeated the host country, Japan, in the finals to win the team gold medal for the first time in 8 years, completing a splendid 'golden day' for the Korean team.
The national baseball team, led by coach Ji-hyun Ryu, defeated its archrival Japan 3-1 in the baseball finals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at Toyohashi Citizen Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 27th.
Korea scored two valuable points in the top of the 8th inning with the score tied at 1-1, once again proving the '8th inning of promise', a winning formula unique to international competitions. They stood on top of the podium, avenging the pain of losing 0-5 to Japan in the first game of the Super Round two days ago, in the most important final stage.
As a result, Korean baseball won this tournament following Guangzhou in 2010, Incheon in 2014, Jakarta and Palembang in 2018, and Hangzhou in 2022, and achieved a milestone of 5 consecutive Asian Games wins.
A series of successful events broke the long slump and revived the gold vein of horseback riding.
Nam Dong-heon competed with his horse ‘Leonidas’ in the finals of the individual equestrian dressage competition and won with a final score of 75.190 points, beating China’s Wei Zai (75.050 points).
Nam Dong-heon won his second medal of this competition, following the silver medal in the dressage team event on the 25th.
It has been 12 years since Hwang Young-sik at the 2014 Incheon Games that a Korean equestrian won the individual dressage event.
Kang Jun-i, who is 20 years younger than Nam Dong-heon, stood on the highest podium in the skateboarding men's street finals held at the Aichi Sky Expo Hall in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, with a final total of 180.85 points, beating Japan's Sasaki Doa (172.35 points).
This is the first time for a Korean athlete to win a gold medal in this event for both men and women since the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, when skateboarding was first adopted as an official event at the Asian Games.
Korean women's handball won the gold medal by winning all six games, defeating rival Japan 27-23 in the final match of the full league.
Korea, which avenged the humiliation of losing 19-29 to Japan in the finals of the 2022 Hangzhou Games in three years, regained the top spot eight years after the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games and was toasted for the 8th time in the Asian Games.
Women's fencing also renewed its gold streak after 8 years with an exhilarating 'golden thrust'.
The women's saber team, consisting of Jeon Ha-young (Seoul City Hall), Kim Jeong-mi, Seo Ji-yeon (Ansan City Hall), and Choi Se-bin (Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall), defeated Japan 45-31 in the team finals to win the championship.
Korea, which reached the top of the 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, shook off the disappointment of only winning a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Games and regained its position as the best in Asia after 8 years.
In track and field, Sanghyuk Woo (30, Yongin City Hall), the ‘Smile Jumper’ who is the symbol of Korean high jump, achieved a valuable milestone by winning three consecutive Asian Games medals.
Woo Sang-hyuk won a bronze medal in the men's high jump finals by clearing 2m22.
Previously, he won a silver medal at the 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Games with a record of 2m 28 and another silver medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Games with a record of 2m 33. He also added a valuable bronze medal at the Nagoya Games and climbed to the Asian Games podium for three consecutive competitions.
Medals were also awarded in swimming and diving.
Kim Su-ji and Kim Na-hyeon won a silver medal in the diving women's synchro 3m springboard final held at the Tokyo Aquatics Center in Japan, scoring a total of 254.70 points in the first to fifth periods, following China's Chen Yi-wen and Chen Zi, who scored 328.56 points.
Na-Hyun Kim, who won the bronze medal in the synchro 10m platform the day before in partnership with Na-Yoon Moon (Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office), won her second medal in this competition.
Shin Jeong-hwi (National Sports Promotion Foundation) and Kim Young-taek (Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Office) won the bronze medal in the men's synchronized 10m platform final with a total of 375.90 points from the first to sixth periods, following China's Yang Hao-Lian Junjie pair (465.54 points) and Malaysia's Enrique Harold-Elvis Priestley pair (377.52 points).
Ahn Se-young, ranked No. 1 in the women's badminton world rankings, defeated World No. 5 Ratchanok Inthanon (Thailand) 2-0 (21-8 21-9) in the women's singles quarterfinals and advanced to the semifinals.
Ahn Se-young will face world No. 4 Chen Yu-fei (China) in the semifinals on the 28th.
The men's doubles world No. 1 pair of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho also advanced to the semifinals by winning 2-1 (15-21 21-17 21-15) over Japan's Hiroki Nishi and Kakeru Kumagai (world No. 20).
The Korean archery team advanced to the semifinals in all six team events.
The semifinals and finals of the recurve men's team event featuring Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok, and Lee Woo-seok, the recurve women's team event featuring Kang Chae-young, Oh Ye-jin, and Lee Yun-ji, and the mixed event featuring Kang Chae-young and Kim Je-deok will be held on October 2.
The compound men's team event featuring Choi Yong-hee, Choi Eun-gyu, and Kim Jong-ho, Lecture, the compound women's team event featuring Park Jeong-yoon and Park Ye-rin, and the mixed team event featuring Park Jeong-yoon and Choi Yong-hee all reached the semifinals.
The medal color for the compound team event will be decided on the 30th.
In addition, the Korean Sepak Takraw national team and Kim Min-seong (Korea National Sports University) of the men's 80kg boxing class each reached the semifinal stage and secured at least a bronze medal, contributing to the remaining medal race.
Korea, which added 5 gold medals in one day, won 21 gold medals and remained in 3rd place in the medal rankings, following China (119 gold medals) and Japan (37 gold medals). Fourth place is Uzbekistan with 10 gold medals.
