By Yoo Jee-ho and Kim Boram
NAGOYA/TOKYO, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's gold medal-winning streak reached five days at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, with a kayak team and an artistic gymnast coming through.
South Korea's ninth gold medal came in canoe sprint, as the team of Cho Gwang-hee, Kim Hyo-bin, Jang Sang-won and Choi Min-kyu won the men's kayak four 500-meter race with a time of 1:22.587.
Yeo Seo-jeong of South Korea smiles on the podium after winning the gold medal in the women's vault in artistic gymnastics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Nagoya General Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan, on Sept. 24, 2026. (Yonhap)
They held off China by 0.255 second at Miyoshi Lake Canoe Course in Miyoshi, just east of Nagoya.
The kayak four 500m race joined the Asian Games in 1990. China and Kazakhstan had combined to win all five previous gold medals in this event before South Korea's breakthrough Thursday.
Yeo Seo-jeong won the women's vault gold medal in artistic gymnastics for her second career Asiad title -- coming eight years after her first. Yeo scored 14.483 points to beat An Chang-ok of North Korea, who earned 13.666 points to fall short in her title defense bid.
Yeo became the second two-time Asiad champion in the family after her father, ex-vaulter Yeo Hong-chul, the 1994 and 1998 gold medalist.
With 10 gold medals, South Korea stayed in third place behind China (77 gold medals) and Japan (20).
Choi Min-kyu, Jang Sang-won, Kim Hyo-bin and Cho Gwang-hee of South Korea (L to R) pose with their gold medals won in the men's kayak four 500-meter race at the Asian Games at Miyoshi Lake Canoe Course in Miyoshi, Japan, on Sept. 24, 2026, in this Reuters photo. (Yonhap)
South Korea added silver in shooting, as Lee Jong-jun and Jang Kook-hee finished second in the mixed team skeet shooting event.
They finished with 51 points, one point behind the world record score set by Lyu Jianlin and Jiang Yiting of China.
South Korea's lone rowing medal of this Asiad came from the lightweight men's single sculls event, where Park Hyun-su grabbed bronze -- eight years after winning gold.
South Korea collected five medals in swimming in Tokyo: silver medals by Park Si-eun in the women's 200m breaststroke, Kim Jun-woo in the men's 800m freestyle and the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team, and bronze medals by Cho Sung-jae in the men's 200m breaststroke and the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Also on Thursday, South Korea reached the semifinals in women's basketball. Coached by Park Soo-ho, South Korea routed Indonesia 101-59 in the quarterfinals, setting up a showdown with China in Friday's semifinals.
South Korea is trying to win its first women's hoops title since 2014.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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