'Chasing consecutive medals,' men's mixed relay team advances from heats... China and Japan take top two spots to finals [Aichi Nagoya AG]

*This content was translated by AI.

The South Korean men's 4x100m mixed relay team has advanced from the preliminary round, continuing their bid for a second consecutive medal.

The team of Yoon Ji-hwan (Gangwon Provincial Government), Jo Seong-jae (Korea Army), Kim Ji-hoon (Daejeon City Hall), and Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon Provincial Government) recorded a time of 3 minutes 39.17 seconds in Heat 1 of the men's 4x100m mixed relay preliminary round at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan on the 22nd during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Finishing second in their heat, South Korea placed fifth overall among 16 participating nations, securing a spot in the final where the top eight teams will compete.

Japan took first place overall with a time of 3 minutes 33.62 seconds, followed by China (3:36.56) and Kazakhstan (3:38.65) in second and third places respectively.

The men's 4x100m mixed relay consists of four swimmers each swimming 100 meters in the following order: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. South Korea won a silver medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Games and set a new Korean record of 3 minutes 32.05 seconds at the previous 2022 Hangzhou Games to claim another silver.

Yoon Ji-hwan, who swam the first leg in lane one, turned with a time of 26.48 seconds for the first 50 meters, taking first place and opening the race. Jo Seong-jae and Kim Ji-hoon maintained second place throughout their legs. Hwang Sun-woo, swimming the final freestyle leg, closed the gap and touched the pad in second place to secure South Korea's advancement to the final. Having already won bronze medals in the men's 100m freestyle and 8x100m relay at this tournament, Hwang will aim for his third medal of the Games in the final scheduled for 6:25 p.m. today.

News of advancing to finals also came from individual events. Lee Eun-ji (Gangwon Provincial Government), a key figure in backstroke, recorded a time of 2 minutes 11.61 seconds in Heat 1 of the women's 200m backstroke preliminary round, finishing third among 21 competitors and easily securing her spot in the final where the top ten will compete. Lee Eun-ji, who won bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m backstroke at the Hangzhou Games, will challenge for a second consecutive medal against Feng Xuewei of China (2:09.38), who finished first in the preliminaries, and Ryo Shirai of Japan (2:10.66), who placed second.

In the men's 400m individual medley preliminary round, Kim Min-seok (Jeonju City Hall) recorded a time of 4 minutes 21.80 seconds for third place, while Kim Min-seop (Gyeongbuk Sports Council) posted 4 minutes 23.75 seconds for seventh place, with both athletes advancing to the final. The first-place finisher in the preliminaries was Tomoyuki Matsushita of Japan with a time of 4:21.05.

Several swimmers advanced to finals in both women's middle- and long-distance freestyle as well as short-distance events. In the women's 400m freestyle preliminary round, Han Da-kyung (Gyeongbuk Sports Council) finished sixth overall with a time of 4 minutes 14.54 seconds, while high school student Kim Chae-yoon (Daejeon High School for Sports) placed tenth with a time of 4:20.62, catching the last train to the final. Heo Yeon-kyung (Daejeon Facility Management Corporation), competing in the women's 100m freestyle preliminaries, also recorded 55.14 seconds and tied for fifth place with Japan's Nagisa Ikeimoto, securing her spot in the final. However, fellow competitor Cho Hyun-joo (Gyeongbuk Provincial Government) finished eleventh overall with a time of 56.43 seconds, narrowly missing the final by 0.61 seconds to White Hitter of the Philippines (55.82), who placed tenth.

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*This content was translated by AI.