'Ah! No medal in 44 years' Joeljin finishes fourth, Bivesa fifth... Men's 100m misses podium by a hair [Aichi Nagoya AG]

*This content was translated by AI.

South Korea's promising male sprinters Namadi Joeljin (Yecheon County Office) and Bivesa Daniel Gasama (Ansan City Office) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the men's 100m final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Making his Asian Games debut, Joeljin clocked 10.17 seconds to take fourth place in the men's 100m final held at Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, on the 25th at 10:20 p.m.

Joeljin had run 10.17 seconds in Heat 3 of the semifinals earlier to finish first in his heat and third overall, qualifying for the final. However, he recorded the same time in the final and failed to reach the podium.

The men's 100m final features eight athletes: the top two from each semifinal heat plus the next two fastest runners by time. Bivesa, also making his Asian Games debut, finished third in Semifinal Heat 2 with a time of 10.22 seconds but secured an additional qualifying spot based on overall time to reach the final. In the final, he ran 10.19 seconds—0.03 seconds faster than his semifinal time—and finished fifth, just behind Joeljin.

South Korean athletics had high hopes with two emerging stars aiming for their first men's 100m medal at the Asian Games in 44 years, but they narrowly missed out. The only times a South Korean athlete has won a medal in this event at the Asian Games were Seo Mal-gu (bronze) at the 1978 Bangkok Games and Jang Jae-geun (silver) at the 1982 New Delhi Games.

Meanwhile, Thailand's Puripon Bunson claimed gold with a new games record of 9.90 seconds. Silver went to Oman's Albalushi Ali (10.04), and bronze was taken by his compatriot Albalushi Maham (10.11).

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*This content was translated by AI.