Lee Geon-hyeok claims two shooting golds
South Korea’s Lee Geon-hyeok won two gold medals in the men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan. The 27-year-old, who represents the Daegu Public Facilities Management Corporation, first helped South Korea win the team event and then took the individual title in a tense final.
The team victory ended a 12-year wait for South Korea to win gold in this event. Lee competed alongside Song Jong-ho and Yoon Seo-young, helping the team return to the top of the podium.
Lee completed a double-gold performance: a team title followed by an individual victory decided only after a second shoot-off.
A final decided by a shoot-off
In the individual final, Lee faced China’s Su Lianbofan. The two remained level through the regular contest, sending the match to a shoot-off—an extra round used to break a tie. Lee prevailed in the second shoot-off to secure gold.
The 25-meter rapid-fire pistol is a precision event in which competitors fire at targets from 25 meters away under strict time limits. Because athletes have little time to settle their aim, the contest demands a combination of accuracy, speed, concentration, and control under pressure.
A shoot-off can make the final moments especially demanding: one more round may determine the medal, leaving little room to recover from a mistake. Lee’s win came after he and Su had already pushed the contest beyond its regular stages.
A family joke that stayed with him
Lee married Kim Ye-ji last year. Kim became an international shooting star after winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. As Lee prepared for the decisive shoot-off, he said he thought about his wife and child.
Kim had teased him that she would change the family’s door code if he came home without a gold medal. Lee joked after his victory that he would have been disappointed if she had actually locked him out. He also sent a message of love to Kim and said he wanted to place his medal around their child’s neck.
“I thought of my wife and child when I stood at the shoot-off firing line,” Lee said. “I want to tell my wife I love her, and put the medal around our baby’s neck.”
The story added a personal note to a result built on intense concentration. For the couple, both of whom compete in shooting, the achievement also made the Asian Games a family milestone.
Another shooting medal—and a family of athletes
Yoon Seo-young, one of Lee’s teammates in the gold-winning team event, also has close ties to the sport. His parents and older brother were all shooters, making him part of what he described as a “shooting family.” He said he was the first in his family to win a medal as a member of the national team and that relatives congratulated him warmly after the team’s victory.
Yoon is also known to be in a relationship with Chu Ga-eun, who won the first shooting gold for South Korea at this Asian Games. Their stories underline how the sport can connect elite competition with family and personal relationships, as well as years of individual training.
Kim Jong-ho makes archery history
South Korea also celebrated a landmark result in compound archery. Kim Jong-ho won the men’s individual title, beating Taiwan’s Chang Cheng-wei 149–145 in the final. Compound bows use a system of cables and pulleys to reduce the effort needed to hold the bow at full draw; the format is distinct from the recurve archery most widely associated with the Olympics.
Kim became the first South Korean man to win the Asian Games men’s individual compound title. His victory followed a difficult team event: after South Korea finished fourth, he struggled with headaches and sleeplessness. He said he reminded himself that this might be his last individual competition and that he should not give up.
In the final, Kim scored 10 points with 14 of his 15 arrows, with the remaining arrow scoring nine. South Korea’s compound team finished its competition with one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. Kim said he was glad to pass the baton to the recurve team, which was due to compete in the following days.
Taekwondo poomsae brings two more titles
South Korea won gold in both individual taekwondo poomsae events, with Yoon Gyu-seong taking the men’s title and Jeong Ha-eun winning the women’s. Poomsae is a sequence of formal movements performed against an imagined opponent; judges assess elements such as accuracy, balance, and execution.
The results extended South Korea’s run of success since poomsae became an official Asian Games event in 2018. The men’s individual title was the country’s third in a row, while the women’s title was its second consecutive victory.
Yoon, who entered military service in June last year, thanked colleagues at his unit for their support and said he missed his fellow soldiers. Jeong, competing in her first Asian Games, had been dealing with injuries to both Achilles tendons and her hamstrings. She described the challenge of pushing through the injuries as a fight with herself.
A day of persistence across sports
The day’s results offered more than a tally of medals. Lee’s two shooting wins came down to composure in a decisive extra round; Kim Jong-ho recovered from a difficult stretch after the team event; and Jeong competed despite multiple injuries. Their performances showed how preparation and the ability to reset after setbacks can shape a close contest.
For South Korea, the shooting team gold ended a long gap in the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event, while the individual victories in archery and poomsae added historic milestones. The next challenge was for the recurve archers to continue the country’s medal run as their competitions began.
