At the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games, Korean judoka Kim Ha-yoon won the first gold medal of the Games in the women’s +78 kg category.
Kim defeated Xu Shiyan (CHN) in the final of the women’s +78kg judo event at the Asian Games at Linfu Gymnasium in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, on Saturday afternoon (June 26) to win South Korea’s first gold medal of the Games.
Kim’s victory helped South Korea win its 10th consecutive gold medal.
Korean judo escaped the ‘individual gold medal drought’. Earlier, Yoon Hyun-ji (Ansan City Hall) won bronze in the women’s 78kg category. Han Joo-yup (Korea Horse Society) in the men’s 90 kg and Won Jong-hoon (Yangpyeong County Office) in the men’s 100 kg lost their medal matches.
Prior to that, on the first day of the individual judo competition, Lee Ha-rim (60kg) won silver and Ahn Paul (66kg) and Jeong Yerin (52kg) won bronze. The next day, Lee Jun-hwan, who competed in the 81 kg category, won silver, while Park Eun-song (57 kg) and Kim Ji-jeong (63 kg) took bronze.
Kim overcame a knee injury suffered just before the national team’s call-up to become the first female judoka to win a gold medal in the heaviest weight class.
Yoon Hyun-ji in the women’s -78kg and Kim Min-jong in the men’s +100kg also claimed valuable bronze medals to round out the individual events.
With all the individual events wrapped up, Korea will continue its medal challenge in the team event. 안전놀이터