South and North Korea compete in same group across four events; North Korea takes bronze

Yeo Seo-jung and her teammates leave the arena looking dejected after finishing fourth in the women's artistic gymnastics team final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Rainbow Hall in Nagoya Gymnasium, Japan, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
Yeo Seo-jung and her teammates leave the arena looking dejected after finishing fourth in the women's artistic gymnastics team final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Rainbow Hall in Nagoya Gymnasium, Japan, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

South Korea's women's artistic gymnastics team fell short of a team final medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday, ending a bid for the country's first podium finish in the event in 20 years. North Korea, competing in the same group, claimed the bronze.

The South Korean squad — Yeo Seo-jung, Lee Yun-seo, Shin Sol-i, Im Su-min and Hwang Seo-hyeon — posted a combined score of 156.863 points across vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise in the women's team final at Rainbow Hall in Nagoya Gymnasium, finishing fourth.

China took gold with 166.462 points, while Japan claimed silver with 165.362.

North Korea edged out South Korea by 1.466 points with a score of 158.329 to win bronze — its second consecutive women's team bronze, following its podium finish at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

South Korea had been chasing its first team medal since the 2006 Doha Asian Games, where it inherited bronze after North Korea's Cha Yong-hwa was retroactively disqualified for age falsification, stripping North Korea of its silver and elevating fourth-place South Korea to the podium.

Star gymnast Yeo Seo-jung scored 14.133 on vault — lower than her qualifying mark — but still topped all vault competitors in the team final, edging out North Korea's An Chang-ok. Her strong showing was not enough, however, to close the gap with North Korea as the team settled for fourth.

In the men's team final held the same day, the South Korean squad of Ryu Seong-hyeon, Kim Jae-ho, Lee Jeong-hyo, Heo Ung and Seo Jeong-won finished fifth with a combined score of 236.359 points across six events, also missing the podium.


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