20th Asian Games: Seong (KOR) and Li (CHN) burn brightest in Aichi-Nagoya (JPN)

Seungmin Seong of Korea and Liuchang Li of China served up the perfect start to the 20th Asian Games, winning impressive individual gold medals in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Seong (KOR) exerted her continental supremacy in style, winning the Women’s Individual title by a distance as she dominated the first medal event of the Games for any Olympic sport. It was Korea’s first gold medal in women’s Pentathlon, following four consecutive wins for Chinese athletes.

Seong (KOR), 23, finished 32sec clear of silver medallist Mingyu Zhang (CHN), who in turn had a comfortable 13sec margin over team-mate Xiyao Wu (CHN). There was an eye-catching finish in 4th place for 16-year-old Mehriniso Kahramaonova of Uzbekistan, while host nation Japan secured a Team bronze medal alongside champion China and runner-up Korea.

The Men’s Final was far closer, as Li (CHN) came from behind to win an incredibly unpredictable Laser Run by just 3sec from Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Woongtae Jun (KOR), with Jonghyeon Lee (KOR) snatching bronze from Shuai Luo (CHN) and Changwan Seo (KOR) in a mass sprint finish. Korea won the Team gold from China, with Kazakhstan picking up bronze.

Women’s Final

Seong (KOR) started the Final at Anjo Sports Park as she meant to go on, winning Fencing Direct Elimination for a starting cushion of 250 points with a deciding victory over team-mate Unju Kim (KOR).

The world No.6 was also competitive in Obstacle Racing, ranking 4th behind Jing Fu (CHN) in 27.39sec, Wu (CHN) and Kahramaonova (UZB).

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Swimming belonged to the hosts as Misaki Uchida (JPN) broke the 1min mark, followed closely by Yuho Yano (JPN), who went on to record the fastest Laser Run time of the Final, an impressive 11:40 enabling her to finish 10th overall.

Seong (KOR) was in no mood to give her rivals a chance, timing 11:51 for an emphatic victory, while Zhang (CHN) and Wu (CHN) earned their medal glory for consistency across all five disciplines. For world No.9 Zhang (CHN), silver added to her collection of two golds won in 2023 in Hangzhou (CHN) and in Jakarta (INA) back in 2018 when she was just 16.

Men’s Final

Finishing 18th and last in Fencing gave nobody reason to believe that Li (CHN) could end his day on top of the podium. The round was won by Temirlan Abdraimov (KAZ), defeating Samuel German of Philippines in the Top 2 fight.

German (PHI) then produced an electrifying time of 19.51 in Obstacle Racing to gain the overall lead, with Yuang Ma (CHN) and Bailang Chen (CHN) next-fastest.

Swimming was where the leaderboard began to take a more familiar form, as Li (CHN) and Jun (KOR) timed 54sec and 55sec respectively, only bettered by the 53.35 of Youngha Kim (KOR). But it was the consistency of Ma (CHN) and Seo (KOR) that enabled them to start Laser Run 1st and 2nd respectively, separated by 5sec.

A truly remarkable Laser Run saw the chasing pack of Li (CHN), Jun (KOR) and Lee (KOR) catch up with the top two, leading to an unforgettable sprint to the line with the top five finishers split by just 8sec. The Men’s Final saw a long-awaited return to elite Pentathlon for Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist Taishu Sato (JPN), who finished 11th.

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President’s reaction

UIPM President Rob Stull OLY said: “The Japanese Modern Pentathlon Federation deserves tremendous credit for the flawless organization of our sport at these 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, where our reimagined Pentathlon debuted as the second medal event of the Games.

“And while the 2026 Asian Games hosted by Japan brought together more flags and more athletes and more languages from across Asia than ever before, there were no borders – only bridges built by our sport and our wonderful pentathletes.”

Asian Confederation news

The Asian Modern Pentathlon Confederation (AMPC) held its Congress on the eve of the Asian Games, with Seonghoon Lee of Korea elected as President and taking a seat on the UIPM Executive Board. It followed Mr Lee’s election as President of the Korean Modern Pentathlon Federation in August 2026.