[Anchor]
South Korea has secured its first swimming gold medal of this Asian Games. Twenty-year-old rising star Kim Young-beom, who previously won silver in the 100m freestyle, clinched the gold in the 50m freestyle with a new tournament record.
Ha Seong-nyong reports from Tokyo.
[Reporter]
Having missed out on the 100m freestyle gold medal yesterday (September 20) by just 0.04 seconds, Kim Young-beom was fiercely determined from the 50m freestyle preliminaries.
He advanced to the finals in first place overall by setting a new tournament record of 21.71 seconds, and could not hide his joy in the interview zone.
[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Wow, nice!]
He carried that momentum into the finals.
Stepping up to lane four amid enthusiastic cheers from his family, Kim delivered the race of his life as soon as the starting gun sounded.
Using his 195 cm frame to cut through the water without hesitation, he powered forward all the way to the end, touching the pad first just 0.1 seconds ahead of the competitor from Hong Kong.
Clocking in at 21.66 seconds and shaving another 0.05 seconds off the tournament record he set in the morning, Kim embraced defending champion Ji Yu-chan, who finished third, and cheered in celebration.
[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Wow, I do not know if this is real.]
[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Because yesterday was so disappointing, this is twice as thrilling, and I feel like I have finally proven myself as a freestyle sprinter.]
Kim's mother, who cheered him on from the stands, shed tears of joy.
[Kim Hye-won / Mother of Kim Young-beom: Young-beom, fighting. I love you, Mom loves you. Let us go home and eat spicy blue crab soup.]
The national anthem rang out at the Tokyo Aquatics Center for the first time in this competition.
[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Having the grand national anthem echo here just to celebrate me is, wow, I cannot put it into words. I had to do it.]
Having wrapped up his individual events by proving himself as an Asian sprint powerhouse in this competition, Kim now targets additional medals in the remaining three relay events.
In the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, where they sought back-to-back titles, the team took the bronze medal behind China and Japan.
Yoon Ji-hwan and Kim Seung-won claimed matching bronze medals in the men's and women's 50m backstroke.
(Video by Park Hyun-cheol | Video Editing by Hwang Ji-young | Graphics by Park Taeyoung)
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