Nam Dong-heon posts highest score among all competitors with 70.559 points

Korea finishes 2.883 points behind gold medalist China; individual final set for Sunday

South Korea's equestrian team — Nam Dong-heon, Kim Si-woo, Lee Myeong-seok and Do Hyeon-woo — pose for a photo after winning the silver medal in the dressage team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Friday at Tokyo Equestrian Park in Japan, with a final score of 205.265 points. [Korea Equestrian Federation/Yonhap]
South Korea's equestrian team — Nam Dong-heon, Kim Si-woo, Lee Myeong-seok and Do Hyeon-woo — pose for a photo after winning the silver medal in the dressage team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Friday at Tokyo Equestrian Park in Japan, with a final score of 205.265 points. [Korea Equestrian Federation/Yonhap]

South Korea's equestrian team claimed a silver medal in the dressage team event at the Asian Games on Friday, returning to the podium for the first time in eight years after failing to win any medal at the previous edition.

The Korean squad of Nam Dong-heon, Kim Si-woo, Lee Myeong-seok and Do Hyeon-woo scored 205.265 points in the dressage team final at Tokyo Equestrian Park in Japan, finishing second. China took gold with 208.148 points, edging Korea by 2.883 points. Japan claimed bronze with 204.117 points, trailing Korea by 1.148 points.

In the team event, rankings are determined by adding the top three scores among each team's four riders.

Veteran Nam Dong-heon led Korea to the silver. A member of the silver-medal team at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, Nam and his horse Leonidas scored 70.559 points — the highest mark on the Korean team and the highest of any competitor that day, surpassing even the top score among China's gold-medal riders at 70.265 points.

Lee Myeong-seok, riding Rosetti, contributed 67.971 points, while Do Hyeon-woo on Nina Richie MP added 66.735. Kim Si-woo on Sir Hubert scored 62.935 points, which ranked fourth on the team and was therefore excluded from the total.

Dressage is a discipline in which a rider guides a horse through a prescribed series of movements — including walks and gaits — on a flat 20-by-60-meter arena. Judges evaluate the horse's stride and rhythm, the harmony between horse and rider, and the precision and artistry of each movement. Scores are expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible points. The discipline demands such refined movement that it is often called "ballet on horseback." Equestrian sports are also among the rare events at both the Olympics and the Asian Games where men and women compete together without gender distinction.

The dressage team event was long a South Korean stronghold. Korea won its first team gold at the 1986 Seoul Games and then claimed five consecutive titles from the 1998 Bangkok Games through the 2014 Incheon Games.

That dominance began to slip at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, when Japan edged Korea to silver, ending the winning streak. At the 2022 Hangzhou Games, Korea finished fourth — behind India, China and Hong Kong — and left without a medal. Friday's silver marks Korea's return to the team event podium after eight years.

The dressage team event doubles as the first round of the individual competition. The team will compete in the individual second round on Saturday before going for gold in the individual final on Sunday.


won@heraldcorp.com