The opening of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the ‘Asian Sports Festival’, which was postponed for a year in the aftermath of Corona 19, is approaching in a month.
About 12,500 athletes from 45 countries will compete for a total of 483 gold medals in 40 official events and 61 detailed events at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which will kick off on the 23rd of next month at the Hangzhou Sports Park Stadium in China. The competition will be held in six cities in Zhejiang Province, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua, and will continue until October 8th.
China is the strongest, Korea is aiming to recapture the 2nd place
At the Asian Games in Hangzhou, which is approaching on the 30th, the Korean national team’s signboard runners are speeding up preparations for the competition, which are trying to climb to the top of the podium. From left: Hwang Seon-woo (swimming), Yeo-jeong Yeo (gymnastics), Shin Yu-bin (table tennis), Park Jeong-hwan (go). Yonhap News Senior Reporter Jung Ji-yoon
Korea dispatched the largest team ever (1180 players, including coaches), a slight increase from the 2014 Incheon Games (1068) held at home, and set the goal of recapturing second place. Starting with the 1998 Bangkok Games, the national team has maintained its position in the Asian Games’second round’ following China in five consecutive competitions. However, at the Jakarta Palembang Games in 2018, it fell far behind Japan (75 gold medals) and was pushed to third place (49).
In order to return to second place, a number of gold medals in archery, taekwondo, judo, and fencing, which are traditional ‘medal field’, are essential. In basic events such as track and field and swimming, athletes such as Woo Sang-hyeok and Hwang Seon-woo, who compete at the world level, have high expectations for gold medals. In swimming, Hwang Seon-woo and Kim Woo-min are aiming for multiple crowns in competition with China, which has the home advantage.
At the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, Yeo Jeong, who won the first Olympic medal (bronze medal) in the history of Korean women’s mechanical gymnastics, will challenge her second consecutive Asian Games victory. Shin Yu-bin of table tennis and Ahn Se-yeong of badminton are also expected to be candidates for the gold medal ahead of the Asian Games. In addition, the baseball and soccer teams aim to win consecutive championships following the previous tournament.메이저놀이터
E-Sports, which was operated as a demonstration event in the 2018 competition, is attracting attention as it is adopted as an official event. Korea, which is regarded as an ‘esports powerhouse’, will compete in four out of eight events: League of Legends (LOL), FIFA Online, PUBG Mobile, and Street Fighter 5. There are a total of seven gold medals at stake in e-sports, and five years ago, when it was a demonstration event, they won one gold and one silver medal each.
In the board game category, Baduk was also included as an official Asian Games event in 13 years. The Korean Baduk team, which consists of Shin Jin-seo, Park Jeong-hwan, and Choi Jeong, 9th Dan, aims to sweep all gold medals (three).
As bowling, which won two gold medals in the last tournament, was excluded from the official event, the results in these events can be an important variable in returning to second place.
In the Hangzhou Asian Games, North Korea, which closed its borders and did not participate in various sporting events since 2020 when Corona 19 spread, participates and draws attention. At the previous Jakarta and Palembang Games, the two Koreas made a joint entrance under the Korean Peninsula flag and won the gold medal in the women’s 500m canoe dragon boat with a unified team, leaving meaningful footprints.
North Korea, which has already applied for participation in the event to be held in its ally China, will challenge for medals in women’s wrestling and weightlifting, which are showing strong strength. North Korea won 12 gold medals at the last competition and ranked 10th.