South Korean promising women's breaststroker Park Si-eun (Gangwon State Council) has claimed a precious silver medal in the women's 200m breaststroke at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Park touched the pad in second place with a time of 2:22.69 in the swimming final of the event held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan on the 24th.

This time shaves 0.52 seconds off the previous Korean record of 2:23.21 set by Moon Su-a (Seoul Physical Education High School) at the National Sports Festival last year.

She finished just 0.12 seconds behind Japan's Kotomi Kato (2:22.57), who took the gold medal.

Park, who advanced to the final in second place overall in the heats (2:26.57) and was assigned lane 5, engaged in a fierce battle for the lead throughout the race with Kato in lane 4.

She closed in tightly on Kato with a fierce spurt in the final 50 meters but fell just short of a dramatic reversal by a narrow margin.

The bronze medal went to China's Zhu Leiju, who recorded 2:25.51.

Having finished fifth in the earlier 100m breaststroke final, Park delivered a silver-medal-winning performance in her signature 200m event, celebrating her first-ever Asian Games medal.

Park is the third South Korean swimming medalist to secure a silver at this tournament, following Kim Young-beom (men's 100m freestyle) and Hwang Sun-woo (men's 200m freestyle).

(Photo: Yonhap News)