Kim defeats Taiwan's Su Liuling 5-0 in final of women's over-87kg event

Kim Min-young, gold medalist in the women's over-87kg kurash event at the 2026 Asian Games. [Korean Sport & Olympic Committee]
Kim Min-young, gold medalist in the women's over-87kg kurash event at the 2026 Asian Games. [Korean Sport & Olympic Committee]

Kim Min-young has become the first South Korean to win an Asian Games gold medal in kurash.

The 21-year-old claimed the title Tuesday at the Aichi Prefectural Budokan in Nagoya, Japan, defeating Taiwan's Su Liuling 5-0 in the final of the women's over-87kg event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

In the final, Kim scored the first "chala" point, but Su quickly equalized with one of her own. Su then committed two fouls, handing Kim a "yomboshi" — worth five points — to seal the 5-0 victory.

Earlier that day, Kim had eliminated a Vietnamese opponent in the round of 16 and a Kazakhstani opponent in the quarterfinals, both by "halal" — the equivalent of an ippon. She then beat Arailym Shegenova of Kazakhstan 1-0 in the semifinals to advance to the final.

Kim had faced her final opponent, Su Liuling, before — at this year's Asian Championships, where Kim won the women's over-87kg title and Su finished as runner-up.

Kurash has been an official Asian Games discipline since the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. South Korea went without a medal at that edition before earning its first podium finishes at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, where the team took one silver and two bronze medals.

Kim took up judo in middle school after following a friend to practice, then switched to kurash in college at the recommendation of a professor. She developed her skills competing in both sports and, at her first Asian Games, etched her name into history as South Korea's first kurash gold medalist.

South Korean women's kurash made history on back-to-back days. On Monday, Mo Su-min of Korea National Sport University became the first South Korean woman to win an Asian Games kurash medal — a silver in the women's 78kg event — and Kim followed the next day with the country's first gold.

In other results, Park Jong-won in the same weight class lost to Shegenova 0-3 in the quarterfinals, while Yun Hyeon-su in the men's 66kg event fell 0-10 to Kubanichbek Aibek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan in the quarterfinals, ending both athletes' medal bids.


yjc@heraldcorp.com