Having broken one record at these Asian Games in China, South Korean swimmer Kim Woo-min would love nothing more than to break another to wrap up his competition here.
Kim soared to his second gold medal in Hangzhou by winning the men's 800-meter freestyle title, and established an Asian Games record of 7:46.03 in the process. Kim shattered the previous record of 7:48.36, set in 2018 by none other than Hangzhou native Sun Yang, and Kim's time is also the new South Korean record, battering Kim's previous mark of 7:47.69.
With this memorable race, Kim either became a part of South Korean swimming history or reached the verge of making history.
Kim's gold was South Korea's fifth title from swimming in Hangzhou. It's a record swimming gold medal total at an Asiad for South Korea, whose previous mark was four gold medals in Guangzhou, China, in 2010.
With his second gold Thursday, following his 4x200m freestyle relay gold from Monday, Kim joined teammate Hwang Sun-woo as a double gold medalist. South Korea has never had multiple swimmers grab multiple gold medals at the same Asian Games until this year.
Finally, if he wins one more gold, Kim can join Choi Yun-hui and Park Tae-hwan as the only South Korean swimmers to win three gold medals at a single Asiad.
That's some heady stuff for the 22-year-old competing in his first Asian Games.
"First off, I am really happy to have broken Sun Yang's competition record here," Kim said. "I really wanted to improve on my time here and I am really excited that I got the job done. I am also pleased to be the winner of the fifth gold medal for the country. And I want to extend that record with another gold in the 400m."
At every turn leading up to the Asian Games, Kim said he fully embraced the pressure of trying to win multiple medals in Hangzhou. His initial target was to win four gold medals. After that bid was foiled with the silver medal in the 1,500m freestyle Tuesday, Kim said he was never intimidated by the magnitude of his historic bid and he would try to win his remaining races.
Now it's one race down, and one final race to go: the 400m freestyle Friday evening at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena.
"Honestly, I would love to become a triple gold medalist," Kim said. "The 400m freestyle is absolutely my favorite race and I have the most confidence in it. I will try to have a great finish to this competition. I am proud to be writing history with my teammates. It's an honor to be in this position."
Kim finished fifth in the 400m freestyle at this year's world championships two months ago, and he was the only Asian in the final then and he should be the favorite come Friday.
"I've been riding a good wave of late, and I have so much confidence in myself to keep improving my records," Kim said. "I've been able to keep faith in myself throughout my preparation for the Asian games. I am so proud that such hard work is paying off."
In the 800m final, Kim led wire-to-wire and was barely challenged. He defeated Fei Liwei of China by 3.87 seconds.
"I tend to have great speed early on, and so I wanted to jump out to an early lead and just do my thing," Kim said. "I wasn't aware of Fei at first. But even if he'd caught me, I was ready to kick into another gear over the final stretch."
Source: Yonhap News Agency