Korea surpasses Asian Para Games target with 29 golds

Korea finished fifth at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games in Japan on Saturday with 29 gold medals, beating its target of at least 21 golds and sixth place.

The team also won 38 silver and 33 bronze medals. A silver in the mixed team sabre event in wheelchair fencing on the final day brought Korea's medal total to 100.

Korea had lowered its goal from the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, held in 2023, where it won 30 golds and finished fourth. Lawn bowls and Go, called Baduk in Korean, were dropped from the program after producing a combined six gold medals for Korea in Hangzhou. Across sports contested at both Games, Korea's gold tally rose from 24 to 28.

"We did better at table tennis and cycling than we expected," Jung Jin-owan, president of the Korea Paralympic Committee, said at the committee's press center in Nagoya on Saturday. "Athletes competing for the first time and newcomers also won medals."

Korea won 12 table tennis golds, a key medal target given the many events divided by disability classification. That surpassed Korea's nine from Hangzhou and set a national record for the most table tennis golds at a single Asian Para Games.

Kim Hyeon-uk of the Gyeonggi para sports association and Yoon Ji-yu of Seongnam City Hall each won three golds. Seo Su-yeon of Gwangju City Hall, Kim Gi-tae of Seoul City Hall, Jang Yeong-jin of Seongnam City Hall and Lee Mi-gyu of Ulsan’s para sports association each won two. Korea also analyzed its opponents to assemble competitive doubles pairs, a strategy that helped increase the medal haul.

Cyclists won seven golds, three more than in Hangzhou. Park Hyun-mi won two golds with pilot Kim Chae-yeon in her Asian Para Games debut. Both are affiliated with Gyeonggi’s para cycling federation. The pilot rides at the front of a tandem bicycle and steers for a cyclist with a visual impairment.

Lee Do-yeon of the North Jeolla para cycling federation won the individual road time trial and road race.

Sprinter Jang Min-ho of Anyang City Hall, aged 29, won two golds at his first Asian Para Games. Jang Min-ho set an Asian record of 10.48 seconds in the men's 100 meters in the T13 classification for athletes with visual impairments. He also set a world record of 46.24 seconds in the 400 meters.

Jang Min-ho competed in the mixed and men's 4x400-meter relays at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. He became the first Korean athlete to compete at both the Asian Games and Asian Para Games. His two golds and two records made him one of this year's competition's stars.

Korea's wheelchair rugby team upset world No. 1 Japan 53-50 in the final to win its first Asian Para Games gold in the sport.

Fencer Cho Eun-hye of Bluebell Korea defeated Thailand's Saysunee Jana 15-14 in the women's individual epee category B final. Jana won three golds at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Cho's victory gave Korea its first gold in wheelchair fencing at the Asian Para Games.

In archery, Kim Ok-geum of Gwangju City Hall and Park Hong-jo of Seoul City Hall won the W1 mixed team event. Kwak Geon-hwi of Hyundai Everdigm won the men's individual recurve event.

Korea fell short of expectations in shooting and boccia, two sports in which it has traditionally excelled. The shooting team won three golds against a target of seven. Korean shooters repeatedly fell short in finals and also took six silver and six bronze medals.

Korean boccia players earned only one silver and one bronze, with no gold. It was the country's worst Asian Para Games result in the sport and the first time it had failed to win a boccia gold since the Games began in 2010.

China topped the medal table with 207 golds, 117 silvers and 111 bronzes. Host Japan followed with 64 golds, 60 silvers and 62 bronzes, while Uzbekistan took third with 45 golds, 49 silvers and 51 bronzes.

Japan's gold-medal lead over Korea grew from 12 in Hangzhou to 35 this year. Uzbekistan climbed from eighth in Hangzhou to third. India, which had won one fewer gold than Korea in Hangzhou, overtook it for fourth with 30 golds, 35 silvers and 49 bronzes.

Korea now faces the task of spreading the success of its stronger sports to other disciplines as rival countries improve.

"We will closely analyze after the Games what we should maintain, what needs improvement and where we fell short," Jung said. "We will work to produce even better results at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics."

BY KIM HYO-KYOUNG [[email protected]]