For Koo Bon-gil (34, Korea Sports Promotion Organization), the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games meant more than most.
After winning five gold medals in the previous edition, he had a chance to become the most decorated Korean athlete at an Asian Games (six).
Competing in both individual and team events, he could take the lead if he won both, or tie the record if he won just one.
At the end of the day, Koo’s medal count was gold (team) and silver (individual).
In the team event, the Koreans defeated China 45-33 to win their third straight title, but in the individual event, they fell to Oh Sang-wook 7-15 to lose their fourth straight individual title.
Koo now has six career gold medals, joining Park Tae-hwan (swimming), Nam Hyun-hee (fencing), Seo Jung-gyun (equestrian), Yang Chang-hoon (archery) and Ryu Seo-yeon (bowling).
But Gu’s challenge is far from over.
“I’m sorry to my juniors, but after winning the team gold medal, I want to win the most gold medals for my country,” he said after the men’s sabre final at the China Electronics University Gymnasium on Aug. 28. He has expressed his intention to challenge for the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games 카지노사이트
It’s not out of the question.
Senior fencer Kim Jung-hwan (40, Korea Sports Promotion Organization) has already shown that it is possible to compete at the Asian Games and win a gold medal even at an ‘unhealthy’ age.
Notably, the next Nagoya Games will be held in three years, after the Hangzhou Games were postponed by a year due to COVID-19.
That’s a year earlier than usual.
Koo won her first gold medal in the individual event at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
What made him happier, his first gold or his sixth? “I can’t forget the first one,” he laughed at the media day at the Jincheon National Athletes’ Village ahead of the Games, “especially since my military career was on the line then.
” But whether the seventh gold medal, which is still elusive, will bring him even more joy than the first is a question that only he can answer.
He was 21 when he won his first gold and became a father this year with the birth of his son.
“I don’t want to let go of the sword until my son realizes that his father is a fencer,” he says, and he’s still looking to the future.