'0.27-second gap' — Young-beom Kim's 'final sprint' sinks Japan... Men's 400m freestyle relay wins back-to-back silver 'without Kim Woo-min' [Aichi Nagoya AG]

*This content was translated by AI.

The South Korean national swimming team won a silver medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The team, consisting of Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Ji-hoon (both from Daejeon Metropolitan City Government), Yang Jae-hoon, and Young-beom Kim (both from Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Government), finished second with a time of 3 minutes 11.69 seconds in the final held on the 24th at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan.

China took first place by setting an Asian record of 3 minutes 10.60 seconds, improving the previous record by 0.28 seconds. South Korea, in second place, narrowly edged out third-place Japan (3 minutes 11.96) by just 0.27 seconds. This marks South Korea's second consecutive silver medal in this event at the Asian Games, following their achievement at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

Hwang Sun-woo, who swam the first leg, took the lead with a time of 47.50 seconds — faster than his 100m freestyle record (47.79 seconds) from this tournament. Kim Ji-hoon, swimming the second leg, maintained the top position with a time of 48.70 seconds. Although China and Japan overtook South Korea during the third leg, Young-beom Kim, the final swimmer and gold medalist in the men's 50m freestyle at this tournament, swam the last 100m in 46.84 seconds to reclaim the lead and surpass Japan.

This final was made possible by the sacrifice of key team member Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Government). Suffering from injuries including a tear in his shoulder labrum, Kim Woo-min competed in the preliminary heats earlier that day to conserve energy for his teammates in the final. After the preliminaries, his pain worsened, and he withdrew from all remaining events scheduled for the 25th, including his main event, the men's 400m freestyle.

Meanwhile, China's Zhang Zanshuo added a gold medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay to his earlier victory in the men's 800m freestyle, becoming the first six-time champion of this tournament.

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*This content was translated by AI.