Kim Young-bum of South Korea celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 50m freestyle final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Monday. [Yonhap]
Kim Young-bum of South Korea celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 50m freestyle final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Monday. [Yonhap]

Kim Young-bum delivered South Korea's first swimming gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, setting a meet record in the men's 50m freestyle.

Kim touched the wall first in 21.66 seconds in the final held Monday at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan. The result gave South Korea back-to-back gold medals in the event, following Ji Yu-chan's victory at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

Kim had already broken the previous meet record in the morning heats, clocking 21.71 seconds to edge past the 21.72 Ji Yu-chan set in Hangzhou. He then shaved another 0.05 seconds off that mark in the final, rewriting the meet record twice in a single day.

The gold was Kim's second medal of the Games, adding to the silver he won in the 100m freestyle on Sunday.

Ji Yu-chan, who had been chasing a second consecutive title, finished third in 21.94 seconds. The silver went to Hong Kong's Ian Yan-to Ho, who clocked 21.76.


yjc@heraldcorp.com