Gold medalist Yun Kyu-sung of Korea poses on the podium during the medal ceremony of the men's individual poomsae taekwondo event at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 in Toyohashi, Japan, on Oct. 1.AP/YONHAP
NAGOYA, Japan — Korea earned six gold medals at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Thursday, with the final weekend of the competition just around the corner.
Korea is now up to 30 gold medals, in third place behind China (152) and Japan (58).
Korea has set sights on winning around 40 to 45 gold medals. With the country not expected to add any medals on Sunday, the last day of the Asian Games, Korea will have the next two days to try to move closer to its goal.
Pistol shooter Lee Gun-hyeok was on target for two gold medals in the men's 25-meter rapid fire event. He lifted Korea to the team gold medal, as he, Yoon Seo-yeong and Song Jong-ho combined for 1,749 points in their individual qualification round.
Then in the individual final, Lee needed two shoot-off rounds to defeat Su Lianbofan of China, after both had put up an Asian record score of 32 points in regulation.
Kim Jong-ho brought Korea its first archery gold medal of this competition, as he won the men's individual title over Chang Cheng-Wei of Chinese Taipei. Kim scored 149 points in the final, just one short of the perfect score in individual events in compound archery.
Earlier in the day, the 14-year-old compound archer Kang Yeon-seo won bronze in the women's individual event with a victory over her teammate Park Jung-yoon.
Korea swept the men's and women's gold medals in taekwondo's poomsae, the non-contact, pattern demonstration discipline of the Korean martial art.
Jung Ha-eun won the women's title with 9.3100 points, and Yun Kyu-sung got the men's title with 9.3800 points.
Korean gold medalist Huh Mi-mi poses for a photograph during the medal ceremony for the women's judo 57-kilogram event at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 1.AP/YONHAP
In judo, Huh Mimi, born in Japan to a Korean father and a Japanese mother, captured the women's 57-kilogram gold medal. A descendant of a Korean independence fighter, Huh defeated Ariunzaya Terbish of Mongolia for her first Asian Games gold.
These six gold medals are the most Korea won in a single day during this year's Games, one more than the five gold medals it picked up last Sunday.
Also on Thursday, Nam Ji-sung and Park Ui-sung advanced to the men's doubles final in tennis, reaching the cusp of Korea's first tennis gold medal in 12 years.
Nam and Park defeated Ho Chenjui and Hsu Yu-hsiou of Chinese Taipei 2-1 (7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 11-9) in the semifinals. In Friday's final, the Korean team will face Yusuke Kusuhara and Shunsuke Nakagawa of Japan.
The men's field hockey team lost to Malaysia 2-1 in the semifinals Thursday, falling just short of the country's first trip to the final since 2006.
Korea will face Pakistan in the bronze medal match at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, just north of Nagoya.
