South Korea's Men's 4x100m Relay Team Nearly Stripped of Bronze Medal Amid Ruling Controversy

The South Korean national men's 4x100m relay team, which crossed the finish line in third place while setting a new national record, nearly lost their bronze medal.

Seo Min-jun (Seocheon County Office), Namadi Joel Jin (Yecheon County Office), Lee Jae-sung (Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall), and Bewesa Daniel Kasama (Ansan City Hall) crossed the finish line in third place with a new national record of 38.43 seconds, following China (38.17 seconds) and Taiwan (38.32 seconds), in the final of the men's 4x100m relay at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, on September 28.

However, the official tournament website listed Thailand, which finished fourth with a time of 38.49 seconds, as the bronze medalist.

The national athletics team, who had been sharing the joy of their achievement, was thrown into chaos.

Ha Kyung-soo, head coach of the men's sprint national team, said in a phone call with Yonhap News, "I heard that the Japanese national team filed an objection," adding, "The organizing committee did not provide a clear explanation, and hard-to-understand results appeared on the website."

The tournament organizing committee even announced Thailand as the bronze medalist in its medalist notices.

The national team strongly protested this decision, and long afterward, the organizing committee readjusted and announced South Korea as the bronze medalist.

This tournament has faced heavy criticism for its amateurish operations.

On September 23, the official tournament website even listed Kim Young-beom, who did not compete in the men's 800m freestyle relay, as a bronze medalist.

From accommodations, transportation, and training environments to rulings and medal tallies, comprehensive problems are being exposed across various areas.

South Korean athletics has suffered through three ruling controversies during this tournament.

The men's 4x100m relay team was disqualified during the preliminaries on September 28 after being ruled for leaving the baton-passing zone, but they overturned the decision through an appeal process.

The mixed 4x100m relay team was initially disqualified during the preliminaries on September 29 due to a foul play by an athlete from another team, but they also reversed the ruling through an appeal and raced in an additional heat.

Adding to this, hard-to-understand situations were repeated even in the men's 4x100m relay final.

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