"Is this a neighborhood sports day?" Men's relay team nearly loses medal despite setting Korean record... Organizing committee that gave and then took away Thailand's bronze medal sparks "outrageous farce" [Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games]

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean men's 400m relay track and field team finally confirmed their bronze medal at the Asian Games after confusion caused by administrative incompetence from the tournament organizing committee.

The Koo Seong-doen (CEO) team, consisting of Seo Min-jun (Seocheon County Office), Namadi Joel Jin (Yechon County Office), Lee Jae-sung (Gwangju Metropolitan City Office), and Bwesa Daniel Kasama (Ansan City Office), crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 38.43 seconds in the men's 4x100m relay final at the Mizho Park Track and Field Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, on the 28th during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The time trailed China (38.17) and Taiwan (38.32), setting a new national record by improving upon the previous Korean record of 38.49 seconds set at last year's Asian Athletics Championships by 0.06 seconds.

However, immediately after the race, an error occurred on the official tournament website listing fourth-place Thailand (38.49) as the bronze medalist. According to a NEWSIS report, the phrase "Protested," indicating that results were pending confirmation, was displayed on the official tournament website right after the race ended. It was determined that the announcement of official results was delayed due to a protest filed by the Japanese team, which recorded fifth place.

During this process, the organizing committee caused confusion by uniformly deleting medal listings from the website and then re-announcing Thailand as the bronze medalist. The Korea Athletics Federation immediately protested, and a final correction announcing Korea's bronze medal win was issued around midnight.

The Korean track and field team faced frequent judgment disputes during this tournament. The men's 400m relay team was disqualified in the preliminary round on the 27th due to a ruling that they left the baton exchange zone, but advanced to the final after an appeal. Previously, the mixed 400m relay team was also disqualified after being hindered from running normally by a player from another team leaving the lane during the preliminaries, but their appeal was accepted and they conducted a solo re-race.

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*This content was translated by AI.