The moment the last swimmer, Handa Kyung (23-Federation of North Korea Athletic Association), touched the touchpad, Heo Yeon-kyung (17-Bangsang) and Park Soo-jin (24-Gyeongbuk Provincial Office) cheered.
Heo and Park burst into tears when they saw that they had won the bronze medal on the scoreboard.
“Eldest sister” Kim Seo-young (29, North Gyeongsang Province) wiped away her tears and hugged her juniors warmly.
South Korea’s women’s 800-meter freestyle relay team won an “emotional Asian Games bronze medal.
The Korean women’s medley relay team of Kim Seo-young, Heo Yeon-kyung, Park Soo-jin and Handa-kyung finished the race in 8:00.11 to take third place in the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay final at the Hangzhou Olympic Center Swimming Pool on Monday at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games in Zhejiang, China.
They finished behind China (7:49.34) and Japan (7:55.93), but ahead of Hong Kong (8:02.42) for the coveted bronze medal.
They also set a new Korean record of 8:04.24, 4.13 seconds better than the previous mark set by Yoo Yu-won, Park Soo-jin, Choi Ji-won and Kim Seo-young in 2019.
South Korea has won three consecutive bronze medals in the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay at the Asian Games: Busan 2002, Doha 2006 and Guangzhou 2010. However, they finished fourth in Incheon 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang 2018.
While we celebrate the recent success of the Korean men’s 800-meter freestyle relay team at the Asian Games, including their Asian record-breaking victory, which propelled them to the top of Asia and the center of the world, we can’t help but feel impatient.
“I didn’t compete in the medley relay until the last Asian Games. Yesterday’s bronze medal in the 400-meter mixed medley relay and today’s bronze medal in the 800-meter women’s freestyle relay are very valuable to me.” “With the men’s team doing so well, I’m happy to show that Korean women can also swim,” said Kim.
He added: “Our female swimmers are also good and hungry. We felt the pressure, but we overcame it well and achieved a good result today,” he said, looking at his juniors with fondness.
The juniors leaned on Kim Seo-young.
“Honestly, I was very nervous about competing in the team event,” said Heo Yeon-kyung, “but Kim Seo-young and other older sisters gave me a lot of support, and I finished with a good time.” “I can’t stop crying,” she said.
Park Soo-jin, whose main event is the butterfly, competed in the freestyle relay and said, “I was very worried because I hadn’t trained enough for the freestyle, and I was worried that I would be a problem for the team.” She was relieved to win the bronze medal.
“We train with Seo-young as our main inspiration and hope that women can also swim,” said Handa-kyung, promising to work harder and achieve better results in the future. 스포츠토토
