Korea to compete in men's 4x100-meter relay final after successful appeal to overturn disqualification

It’s not over until it’s over. Korea successfully secured its bid for the men’s 4x100-meter relay final after successfully appealing its disqualification over an alleged faulty baton exchange at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Sunday.

The team of Kim Si-on, Joel Jin Nwamadi, Daniel Biwesa and Lee Jae-seong was disqualified in the heats of the men’s 4x100-meter relay at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya, Japan.

Coach Ha Kyung-su said that he was notified of a baton exchange rule violation between first runner Kim and second runner Nwamadi.

“We appealed against the decision because we cannot accept it,” he said.

Due to the disqualification, Korea initially failed to qualify for the event’s final scheduled for Monday.

Korea had been seeking a medal in the men’s 4x100-meter relay — a goal spearheaded by Nwamadi and Biwesa, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the men’s 100-meter race on Friday.

“We submitted all the video footage of the game that we had [to the organizers] to immediately appeal the disqualification decision,” Ha told Yonhap News Agency on Monday. “The organizers accepted our appeal, and we can now compete in the final tomorrow.”

The coach admitted that the team had been unsure if the organizers would accept the appeal due to a lack of precedent of appeal requests being overturned in global sports games such as the Olympics or the Asian Games. 

“Despite the organizers’ ruling that we had a faulty baton exchange, we knew that we weren’t in the wrong,” Ha added. “We were confident that we didn’t do anything to cause a disqualification.”

BY YONHAP, HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]