[Anchor]

The South Korean swimming national team has secured its first gold medal at the Nagoya Asian Games. Twenty-year-old Kim Young-beom, who previously won a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle, claimed gold in the 50-meter event with a new meet record.

Reporting from Tokyo, this is Ha Seong-nyong.

[Reporter]

Having missed out on the 100-meter freestyle gold by a razor-thin margin of 0.04 seconds, Kim Young-beom was determined from the very beginning of the 50-meter freestyle preliminaries.

He set a new meet record of 21.71 seconds to advance to the finals as the top qualifier, and could not hide his excitement in the interview zone.

[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Wow, nice!]

He carried that momentum straight into the finals.

Racing in lane four amid enthusiastic support from his family, Kim delivered the race of his life right from the starting gun.

Leveraging his 195 cm height, he surged through the water without hesitation, extending his reach all the way to touch the pad 0.1 seconds ahead of the Hong Kong competitor.

Clocking in at 21.66 seconds and shaving another 0.05 seconds off the meet record he had set earlier in the morning, Kim embraced defending champion Ji Yu-chan, who finished third, and celebrated in joy.

[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: Wow, I am not sure if this is real. It feels twice as thrilling to make up for yesterday's disappointment, and I feel like I have finally proven myself as a freestyle sprinter.]

Kim's mother shed tears of joy while cheering from the stands.

[Kim Hye-won / Kim Young-beom's Mother: Young-beom, fighting. I love you, Mom loves you. Let's go home and have spicy blue crab stew.]

The South Korean national anthem echoed through the Tokyo Aquatics Centre for the first time in this competition.

[Kim Young-beom / National Swimming Team Member: To have the grand national anthem play here just to celebrate little old me is, wow, I cannot put it into words. We just have to keep going.]

Having wrapped up his individual events by proving himself as an Asian sprint powerhouse in this competition, Kim now sets his sights on additional medals in the three remaining team relay events.

In the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, where the team aimed for a second consecutive title, South Korea claimed the bronze medal behind China and Japan.

Meanwhile, Yoon Ji-hwan and Kim Seung-won captured matching bronze medals in the men's and women's 50-meter backstroke events.

(Video by Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Hwang Ji-young | Graphics by Park Taeyoung)