Korea wins silver in men's 4x100m freestyle relay at Asian Games

Korea claimed silver in the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay swimming at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 on Thursday, its second straight runner-up finish.

Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Ji-hun, Yang Jae-hoon and Kim Young-beom posted a time of 3:11.69 at Tokyo Aquatics Centre, ending up 1.09 seconds behind China, which set an Asian record of 3:10.60.

Japan finished third in 3:11.96.

Hwang led off with his personal-best 100-meter time of 47.50 seconds, putting Korea in the lead. By the time Kim Ji-hun finished his second leg, Korea fell to third behind China and Japan.

Yang kept Korea in the bronze medal position, and Kim Young-beom pushed the team to second place with a blistering anchoring leg of 46.84. He had the fastest final 50-meter split with 24.60 seconds.

"Honestly, I wanted the top prize here, and we ended up about one second behind," Hwang said. "We have to put in even more work to shave that extra second off our time."

In the morning's heats, Kim Woo-min, Ji Yu-chan, Lee Ho-joon and Kim Min-seop swam for Korea. These four will also receive their silver medals.

Kim Woo-min competed through a shoulder injury. He helped Korea win bronze in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay Monday but then finished last in the 1,500-meter freestyle Tuesday, after which he disclosed that he had been racing with a partially torn labrum and rotator cuff in his left shoulder.

He pulled out of the 200-meter and 800-meter freestyle races set for Wednesday and Thursday, and chose only to compete in the relay heats Thursday. After the relay, Kim decided to also withdraw from the 400-meter freestyle, his main event, scheduled for Friday.

Kim Young-beom thanked Woo-min and all the others who swam in the heats and revealed that he wore Woo-min's cap in the relay final.

"We posted a great time here. It may look slow next to the Chinese team's time, but we were really fast today," Kim Young-beom said. "I had a blast. This was a super fun race."

Kim collected five medals in Tokyo, including gold in the men's 50-meter freestyle.

Yonhap