After impressing at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, the Taekwondo Warriors showed no signs of rust at the 104th Jeonnam National Championships and are back in the medal hunt in earnest.
Baek In-chul (23, Busan Jung-gu Office), who won the men’s 50-metre butterfly in Hangzhou with a new Korean record, made his presence felt in Mokpo by setting the first Korean record of the Games.
Baek won the men’s 50-metre butterfly in a new Korean record of 23.15 seconds at the Mokpo Indoor Swimming Pool in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, on Thursday.
He set a new meet record of 23.44 in the preliminaries earlier in the day and then broke the Korean record in the final.
Paik became the first South Korean to win a gold medal in the 50m butterfly at the Hangzhou Asian Games on 28 March, setting a Korean record in both the preliminaries and the final.
This is the fourth time Baek has broken the Korean record this year.
Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Province), who won three medals in Hangzhou, blew away the field in the 1,500m freestyle final with a time of 15:15.75.
Kim suffered from an upset stomach, high fever and body aches due to food poisoning ahead of the event, but battled back to win the gold medal and showcase his Asian Games prowess.
In roller skating in Naju, Chung Byung-hee (Chungbuk Sports Federation), who won gold in the excluded + points (EP) 10,000m in Hangzhou, took silver in the men’s 10,000m excluded event.
His older brother, Jung Byung-kwan, took the gold, making it a family affair.
Jeong Byung-kwan and Jeong Byung-hee will attempt to win multiple titles in the 3,000 metres relay and the 10,000 metres excluded + points (EP) at the Games.
Choi In-ho (Nonsan City Hall), Chung Chul-won (Andong City Hall) and Choi Kwang-ho (Daegu City Hall), who disappointed their fans in the 3,000m relay in Hangzhou by settling for silver after being upset by Chinese Taipei, finished fourth to sixth.
In the men’s general competition, Seo Chang-wan (Jeonnam-do) won the pentathlon with a total of 1,051 points, ahead of Jeon Woong-tae (Gwangju Metropolitan City) with 1,558 points. Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Jeon made up for his disappointment by winning gold in the team event.
In archery, Lee Woo-seok (Kolon), who won the men’s team and mixed team titles in Hangzhou, set a new competition record with a score of 340 from 90 metres in the qualification round.
Archery, which is said to be harder to compete in than the Asian Games and Olympics in domestic competitions, will begin its tournament on the 16th. 안전놀이터