Kim Young-beom and Hwang Sun-woo captured silver and bronze medals in the men's 100-meter freestyle swimming race at the Asian Games on Sunday, the first two of what South Korea is hoping will be many medals from the pool.
Kim finished second in 47.65 seconds at Tokyo Aquatics Centre, just 0.04 behind the champion, Pan Zhanle of China. Hwang ended in third place in 47.79 seconds.
Tokyo is hosting all swimming races while the central city of Nagoya serves as the main host of the quadrennial competition.
South Korea grabbed 22 medals in swimming at the previous Asian Games three years ago and is hoping to repeat that success this time.
Kim touched the 50m pad first in 22.81 seconds with Singpore's Mikkel Lee making an early run at 22.86 seconds. Pan reached the halfway mark in 22.92 and Hwang was even slower at 22.97.
But Pan demonstrated his patented late surge and had the fastest final 50m split in 24.69. Kim, on the other hand, came home in 24.84, only the fourth-fastest split. Hwang had the third-best split over the final 50m with 24.82.
