It has been revealed that the South Korean men's 400-meter relay national track and team, who crossed the finish line in third place with a new national record, almost had their bronze medal taken away.

Seo Min-jun, Namadi Joel Jin, Lee Jae-sung, and Bewsa Daniel Gasama crossed the finish line in third place behind China and Taiwan with a new national record of 38.43 seconds in the final of the men's 400-meter relay at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held yesterday at the Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium in Nagoya, Japan.

However, the official tournament website stated that Thailand, which finished fourth with 38.49 seconds, had won the bronze medal.

The track and field national team, who had been sharing the joy of their performance, was thrown into chaos upon discovering this fact.

Ha Kyung-soo, head coach of the men's sprint national team, told reporters regarding the erroneous medal announcement, "I heard that the Japanese national team filed a protest," adding, "The organizing committee did not give a clear explanation, and an incomprehensible result appeared on the website."

In addition to this, the tournament organizing committee even announced Thailand as the bronze medalist in the official medalist announcement.

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

The tournament is facing heavy criticism as poor operation by the organizers is repeatedly exposed not only in this happening but also in other events.

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

Comprehensive problems are emerging everywhere, including lodging, transportation, and training environments, as well as refereeing and medal tallying.

The South Korean track and field team has experienced refereeing disputes three times at this tournament.

The men's 400-meter relay team was disqualified during the preliminaries for "leaving the baton-passing zone," but overturned the decision through an appeal process.

The mixed 400-meter relay team was also disqualified in the preliminaries today due to a foul play by another team's athlete, but similarly managed to reverse the decision through an appeal process and advance to an additional race.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Eui-seon | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News