(Asiad) Young swimmer soars to gold; baseball team opens title quest with win

On Monday, South Korean swimmers secured five medals, including their first gold, at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held in Tokyo. Led by swimmer Kim Young-beom, the country's medal count rose to five gold medals after two days, placing them in third behind China and Japan. Kim set an Asian Games record time of 21.66 seconds in the men's 50-meter freestyle final, improving his own record by 0.05 seconds.

Ji Yu-chan, the 2023 Asiad champion, claimed the bronze in the same event with a time of 21.94 seconds. South Korea also won bronze in both the men's and women's 50m backstroke events, with Yoon Ji-hwan and Kim Seung-won respectively. The men's 4x200m freestyle relay team finished in third place, 6.59 seconds behind the champion China.

Additionally, South Korea's women's football team drew 1-1 against North Korea in an inter-Korean showdown. Despite both teams earning a quarterfinal berth, North Korea secured the top seed due to their +18 to +11 goal difference. North Korean striker Chae Un-yong scored the lone goal for her team in the 35th minute, while Yun Su-jeong equalized for South Korea just one minute into the second half.

Elsewhere on Monday, Lee Bo-mi won bronze in the women's modern-54kg event in mixed martial arts, marking her first medal at the Asian Games after losing in the semifinals to Bahrain's Diana Pogosian. In shooting, South Korea claimed a bronze in the men's 10-meter air rifle team event, with Park Ha-jun, Shin Min-ki, and Gwon Hyeop-jun scoring a combined 1,884.2 points.

South Korea also secured its first medal in wushu with An Hyeon-gi taking bronze in the men's taijiquan and taijijian event. Lastly, the country earned its third medal in soft tennis, with Kim Yeon-hwa and Park Jae-kyu winning bronze in the mixed doubles. The women's volleyball team, however, lost to Japan in straight sets and will face Thailand in the bronze medal match the following day.