South Korea wasted little time collecting its first gold medal of the 19th Asian Games in China on Sunday, the first day of medal events, as Kang Wan-jin came through with the men's individual poomsae title in taekwondo.
Chae Yea-eun followed up minutes later with gold in the women's individual poomsae event at Lin'an Sports Culture & Exhibition Centre in Hangzhou, as South Korea swept the two titles up for grabs in taekwondo's demonstration discipline.
These were among five gold medals that South Korea collected Sunday across Hangzhou.
South Korea also captured two gold medals in modern pentathlon. Jun Woong-tae was crowned the men's individual champion with 1,508 points from swimming, fencing, horse riding and laser run (shooting and running), and also helped South Korea to the men's team gold medal, along with the individual silver medalist Lee Ji-hun and fourth-place finisher Jung Jin-hwa.
An all-South Korean final materialized in the women's individual epee fencing, where Choi In-jeong defeated her teammate, Song Se-ra, 9-8.
Choi finally earned her first Asian Games gold in her third try, having taken individual bronze and team silver at both 2014 and 2018 competitions.
South Korea emerged with two medals from the swimming pool, with Hwang Sun-woo winning bronze in the men's 100-meter freestyle and Lee Ju-ho matching the feat in the men's 100m backstroke.
This is the first Asian Games for Hwang, the 20-year-old budding star with two world championship medals in the 200m freestyle.
Earlier in the day, Kim Sun-woo won silver in the women's individual pentathlon event for South Korea's very first medal in Hangzhou. Kim combined with teammates Kim Se-hee, Seong Seung-min and Jang Ha-eun for the team bronze medal.
South Korea collected three medals in judo: a silver by Lee Ha-rim in the men's -60kg, and a bronze each by An Baul in the men's -66kg and Jung Ye-rin in the women's -52kg.
All told, South Korea finished the day with five gold, four silver and five bronze medals, good for second place behind China, which gobbled up 20 gold medals.
Japan, which edged out South Korea for second place at the 2018 Asiad, won two gold medals Sunday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency