Seong Seung-min Secures South Korea's First Gold Medal, Wins Women's Modern Pentathlon Individual

Female modern pentathlete Seong Seung-min has delivered South Korea's first gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Seong claimed the top of the podium today (the 20th) at the modern pentathlon women's final held at the Anjo Sports Park in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, scoring a total of 1,492 points across fencing, swimming, obstacle racing, and laser run (running and shooting).

This marks the first gold medal for the South Korean delegation at this year's Asian Games, which opened yesterday.

In the team event—where rankings are determined by combining the scores of the top three individual athletes from each participating country—Seong teamed up with Kim Eun-ju (1,399 points, 7th place individually) and Shin Su-min (1,380 points, 12th place individually) to win the silver medal behind China.

Seong, a bronze medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, became the first South Korean female athlete to win an individual modern pentathlon gold medal at the Asian Games.

Having become the first Asian female athlete to medal at the Olympics, she is now recorded as the first South Korean female modern pentathlete to win an individual gold at the Asian Games.

Additionally, Seong earned the honor of becoming the first individual champion at the Asian Games since equestrian was replaced by obstacle racing in the modern pentathlon.

In the final, 18 athletes who advanced through the semifinals held on the 17th competed for the medals.

In fencing, conducted as a 5-point épée knockout tournament, Seong powered through to the final, starting with a 5-4 victory over Yuliana Petrova of Kazakhstan in the round of 16.

She defeated China's Zhang Mingyu—who was aiming for her third consecutive individual Asian Games title—in the semifinals, and went on to win her final showdown against national teammate Kim Eun-ju, claiming first place overall and earning 250 points.

In the obstacle race, which requires quickly clearing various types of obstacles, Seong secured 358 points with a personal best time of 29.26 seconds, maintaining her lead with a combined total of 608 points.

In swimming, she finished 3rd in her heat (1:01.14) and 7th overall, picking up 295 points to hold her lead in the standings after three events.

In the laser run, where starting times are staggered based on the scores from the first three events, Seong started 18 seconds ahead of the second-place competitor, managed the race calmly, and crossed the finish line first to complete her historic feat.

Zhang Mingyu won the silver medal with a total of 1,460 points, while China's Wu Shiyao took third place with 1,447 points.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.