17-year-old from shooting family

teams up with Song Jong-ho, Lee Geon-hyeok for gold

South Korea's Lee Geon-hyeok, Yun Seo-young and Song Jong-ho pose on the podium after winning gold in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Thursday. [Yonhap]
South Korea's Lee Geon-hyeok, Yun Seo-young and Song Jong-ho pose on the podium after winning gold in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Yun Seo-young (KB Kookmin Bank), the self-assured youngest member of South Korea's shooting team, claimed gold at his first Asian Games.

Yun teamed up with Song Jong-ho and Lee Geon-hyeok on Thursday to win the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was South Korea's first team gold in the event since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games — a 12-year wait.

Yun had finished second overall with 293 points in the first day of the final-round 30-shot competition on Wednesday, and he maintained that steady form through the final day to help secure the team title.

Yun grew up in a shooting family: his father, Yun Jang-ho, competed in pistol events, his mother, Nam Da-yeon, was a rifle shooter, and his older brother Yun Sang-hyeon was a moving-target competitor before retiring. Yun followed his father into pistol shooting.

"I learned so much from my parents about mental strength and the right mindset for competition," he said. "They always gave me confidence, so I could step up to the firing line on any big stage without feeling intimidated."

Yun took up rapid-fire pistol at 17 and has steadily built his credentials as South Korea's next-generation standout — winning bronze at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Changwon, silver at the 2024 World University Championships, and team gold at the 2025 Asian Championships in Shymkent.

Particularly notable was his selection in 2020 by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee as one of 20 "New Stars" through its promising-athlete support campaign. The list included badminton player An Se-young, table tennis player Shin Yu-bin and swimmer Hwang Sun-woo; Yun, then a student at Hwanil High School, was the only shooting athlete named.

Six years later, he made good on that with gold at his first Asian Games. Before the competition, Yun had declared he would "step onto the stage without fear and bring home gold with the confidence of the youngest member of the team" — and he delivered on every word.

Yun has said he wants to be remembered as "the eternal No. 1 legend of rapid-fire pistol." With his first Asian Games gold now in hand, that pursuit has taken its first major step.


yjc@heraldcorp.com