[Anchor]

Our delegation's first gold medal of this competition came from women's modern pentathlon star SEUNGMIN. The men's modern pentathlon team also captured the championship.

Reporter Hong Seok-jun has the story.

[Reporter]

SEUNGMIN took the lead right from the opening fencing event with a perfect record, and even set a personal best in the obstacle event, which was considered her weak point, raising both arms in celebration.

Maintaining her lead through the swimming event, she started the final laser run 18 seconds ahead of the second-place athlete. Running relentlessly and showing off precise shooting skills, she lapped the lower-ranking athletes by more than one full lap.

Waving to the cheering fans and crossing the finish line more than 30 seconds ahead of second place, SEUNGMIN became the winner of our delegation's first gold medal of this competition and the first-ever Asian Games gold medal for South Korean women's modern pentathlon.

In the team event, which aggregates the scores of the top three individuals, she combined with Kim Eun-ju and Shin Su-min to win the silver medal.

[SEUNGMIN / National Women's Modern Pentathlon Team : Starting things off with the first gold medal feels different and special, and I am just so happy that words cannot even express it.]

Men's ace Jeon Woong-tae secured a hard-fought medal.

Stuck in 9th place after the swimming event, he started the laser run 35 seconds behind the leader. He climbed the rankings one step at a time, crossing the finish line in 2nd place.

After winning the valuable silver medal, Jeon Woong-tae tearfully recalled the moments he endured grueling training after undergoing surgery to remove pins from his body for this competition.

[Jeon Woong-tae / National Men's Modern Pentathlon Team : The difficult moments kept flashing through my mind like a revolving door, and I don't think the journey here was smooth at all...]

Though he missed out on a third consecutive individual title, he broke into a broad smile upon hearing the news that he achieved a second straight team title alongside Lee Jong-hyun and Seo Chang-wan.

[Jeon Woong-tae / National Men's Modern Pentathlon Team : I didn't hear. Are we first place in the (team event)?]

[We will celebrate among ourselves later.]

South Korean modern pentathlon delivered another strong performance following the previous competition with 2 golds, 2 silvers, and 1 bronze, bringing a golden momentum to our delegation on the first day of the event.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
(Reported by Hong Seok-jun | Video by Choi Dae-woong | Video Editing by Park Choon-bae | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon)