Men’s medley relay team sets record to clinch bronze in 4x100-meter race

Korea grabbed bronze in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay swimming race at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Tuesday with a new national record, as its anchor Kim Young-beom collected his third medal in three days in Tokyo.

The quartet of Lee Ju-ho, Choi Dong-yeol, Yang Jae-hoon and Kim clocked 3:31.97 in the final at Tokyo Aquatics Centre, as Korea placed third behind China at 3:27.89 and Japan at 3:28.70.

The previous national record was 3:32.05, set when Korea won silver at the 2023 Asiad. Lee, Choi and Kim swam with Hwang Sun-woo in the final then.

This was an entirely different lineup than the one that swam in the heats, when Yoon Ji-hwan, Cho Sung-jae, Kim Ji-hun and Hwang represented Korea.

Those four also received bronze medals. It was also Hwang's third medal of the competition, after winning bronze in the 100-meter freestyle on Sunday and another bronze in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay on Monday.

In the medley relay, swimmers each covered 100 meters doing the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle in order.

Lee covered his backstroke leg in 53.92 seconds to put Korea in third, and that is where the team remained the rest of the way.

Choi posted a breaststroke split of 58.98, and Yang followed with 51.58 in butterfly. Kim Young-beom brought Korea home in 47.49.

Yonhap