The opening of the 19th Hangzhou Summer Asian Games, a grand festival for Asian athletes, is just 5 days away. The Korean team will send a team of 1,140 athletes, the largest ever, to hunt for medals. The Korean team will depart for China on the 20th after completing all preparations to fly the Korean national flag in the skies of six cities, including Hangzhou and Ningbo.
■Goal of 50 gold medals and 3rd place overall
Korea will send the largest number of athletes ever to compete in a total of 39 events at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The 1,140 Korean athletes set a goal of ranking third overall and winning more than 50 gold medals in each event. The goal is to minimize the gold medal gap with Japan at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Korea won 49 gold medals at the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, ranking third after Japan, which won 75. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Korea won 6 gold medals (16th place), while Japan gained the host country advantage and ranked 3rd after the United States and China with 27 gold medals. Korea beat Japan and took second place in five consecutive competitions (Busan 2002, Doha Qatar 2006, Guangzhou China 2010, Incheon 2014), including the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.
The Korean team’s goal is to narrow the gold medal gap with Japan to less than 10 at the Asian Games and compete once again with Japan for the position of a powerhouse안전놀이터 in Asian sports at the Paris Olympics, which opens in July next year.
■Gu Bon-gil and Na Ah-reum challenge for the most gold
The Korean team selected fencing male saber Gu Bon-gil (34, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation) and swimming female Kim Seo-young (28, Gyeongbuk Provincial Office) as flagbearers and team captains for the opening ceremony. Koo Bon-gil will attempt to achieve the record for the most gold medals ever for a Korean athlete at the Asian Games. Koo Bon-gil won a total of five gold medals at the 16th and 18th Asian Games. Koo Bon-gil aims to win three consecutive Asian Games gold medals and set the record for the most gold medals in the individual and team fencing men’s saber events.
Cyclist Na-reum (33, Samyang Corporation) is also trying to break the record for the most gold medals along with Gu Bon-gil. Na-reum won four gold medals (individual road, road solo, madison, and team pursuit) at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, giving the Korean team four gold medals. Na-reum will go on the hunt for a lot of gold in this competition as well.
Woo Ha-ram (25, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation), who competes in the swimming and diving event, will challenge for his first gold medal in his life. Woo Ha-ram participated in the 17th and 18th competitions and won 3 silver medals and 5 bronze medals, setting the record for the most medals ever for a Korean athlete, but he had nothing to do with the gold medal. Haram Woo’s goal is to win a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, his third competition.
Ha Ji-min (34, Haeundae-gu Office), a leading figure in Korean yachting, will also challenge for gold medals in three consecutive competitions following the 2014 and 2018 competitions.
■The national soccer team leaves the country and joins North Korea.
The Korean national soccer team, which is attempting to win the Asian Games, departed for Hangzhou on the 16th and began local adaptation training. The national soccer team, led by coach Hwang Seon-hong, will begin the group stage match against Kuwait on the 19th, Thailand on the 21st, and Bahrain on the 24th. Korea is expected to compete for the gold medal with Japan and Iran.
The baseball team will also leave for Hangzhou on the 28th. The baseball team will hold its first convocation training at Gocheok Dome on the 23rd. The baseball team is also expected to compete against Japan for the gold medal.
Meanwhile, North Korea will also participate in the Asian Games. There are 191 North Korean athletes competing in 18 sports at the Asian Games. The first team of North Korean athletes arrived at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport on the night of the 15th. It has been five years and eight months since North Korea participated in a large-scale international sporting event since the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics held in February 2018.