South Korea collected its first gold medal in men's sailing at the 19th Asian Games in China on Wednesday.
Cho Won-woo topped the podium of the men's RS:X windsurfing at Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre in Ningbo, east of the host city of Hangzhou.
After the 14th race, which wrapped up Tuesday, Cho earned the most race points for the gold medal, while Eabad Ali of India finished runner-up and Muhammad Izzuddin bin Abdul Rani of Malaysia came in third.
Cho's gold medal was confirmed Monday after the 12th race, but his medal was officially presented on Wednesday along with other subdivisions in sailing.
This is South Korea's first gold medal from sailing at the ongoing Asian Games.
After the 12th race, Cho finished first with the lowest penalties, which helped him keep enough distance from other competitors even without the remaining two races.
Cho will be the last RS:X gold medalist at Asiad as the discipline will be removed from the official Asian Games competitions list from the next 2026 edition. It will be also replaced with iQFoil at the Paris Olympics next year.
"It's more meaningful that this is the last race at the Asian Games. There will no longer be gold medalists in this event after me," he said. "I like the title, the last gold medalist."
Meanwhile, South Korea added four more medals in sailing -- two silver and bronze each.
Ha Jee-min took silver in the men's single-handed dinghy race, after Lo Jun Han Ryan of Singapore. Ha had won the sailing competition since 2010 but couldn't make it four in a row in China.
In the men's iQFoil windsurfing race, South Korea's Lee Tae-hoon finished second, while Lee Young-eun won bronze in the women's formula kite competition.
South Korea's mixed dinghy 470 race team also brought home the bronze medal.
In sailing, participants receive points equal to their finish in each race. After all the fleet races have been completed, sailors can exclude their worst race score. The remaining scores will be totaled and the sailor with the lowest score wins the event.
Source: Yonhap News Agency