'Early discharge confirmed' Poomsae gold medalist Yoon Gyu-seong: "With less than 70 days until my discharge, I am truly happy" [Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games]

*This content was translated by AI.

Although he received much support, due to the nature of being a soldier, it was inevitably difficult to have training conditions comparable to those of competing athletes. This is why Yoon Gyu-seong (24, 2nd Corps Command), who secured his early discharge by winning the gold medal, wore a bright smile.

Yoon Gyu-seong won the gold medal at the poomsae men's individual final of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held on the 1st at the Toyohashi Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, by achieving an average score of 9.3800 points in both the official and free poomsae.

On the first day of the taekwondo events, Yoon Gyu-seong and Jeong Ha-eun (Yongin Metropolitan City Hall) jointly won gold medals in poomsae, marking a pleasant start for 'Taekwondo Korea.' This is a remarkable achievement, as it marks consecutive gold medals in both men's and women's individual poomsae events for the second time, following the Hangzhou Games three years ago.

Before the tournament, Yoon Gyu-seong said, "I think my current period of military service is the most difficult time in my athletic career. It was hardest to train alone in both official and free poomsae, and because I am serving in the military, the places and times available for practice were very limited."

There were also limitations due to injury. After injuring his heel at a university league tournament, Yoon Gyu-seong competed all the way to the National Sports Festival without receiving sufficient treatment, resulting in aftereffects. In particular, he experienced pain and fear when landing on his right foot, and his technical completeness declined after the injury.

He was able to overcome this difficult period with the help of members and officers from the taekwondo demonstration team, and he received much support, but there were inevitably many differences compared to training in a civilian setting.

Therefore, it is only natural that Yoon Gyu-seong feels exceptionally happy about his early discharge resulting from the gold medal. According to the tournament organizing committee, Yoon Gyu-seong expressed his feelings by saying, "With less than 70 days left until my discharge, I am truly happy."

He had a great sense of anxiety about whether he might fall behind others. Yoon Gyu-seong conveyed his gratitude, stating, "(While preparing for the tournament) I felt anxious throughout, but I would like to express my thanks to the taekwondo community that continuously sent me encouragement and to the military that did not spare any support."

Reflecting on his free poomsae performance, he said, "After successfully executing the 1080th-degree move and the final move, I was certain of victory. It seems that having a good dream the previous day also had an effect."

There were also regrets. Yoon Gyu-seong noted that the competition mat on the day was more slippery than his training mat, stating, "I wanted to put in 100% effort, but I could not show a complete performance because it might become slippery. It feels like I showed 90%, leaving 10% of regret."

<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>

*This content was translated by AI.