China’s ‘golden generation’ of soloists…South Korea’s freestyle heyday, what’s the secret?

The latest from the Hangzhou Asian Games. After winning gold in the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay, the swim team used solid teamwork to stop China’s dominance and break Japan’s record. Moments later, they’re back in the hunt for another medal 굿모닝토토.

Reporter Choi Jong-hyuk reports from Hangzhou.

[Reporter]

Ji Yuchan stopped China’s dominance in the 50m freestyle.

Some called it a surprise gold medal.

[Ji Yuchan/Swimmer, Men’s 50m Freestyle Gold: I’m short, so I can turn faster than everyone else, and I start as fast as I can, so I have the advantage of momentum…]

I was able to go out with an explosive start and sprint away from the side lane resistance.

The men’s 800-meter freestyle relay was able to break Japan’s Asian record and win because they didn’t rely on one star performer…

[Lee Ho-joon / Men’s Freestyle 800m Gold: I think he did a good job for me and Sun-woo in the preliminaries, so we were able to run a stronger race in the final].

I had a strategy.

Until the World Championships in July, the race order was Hwang Sun-woo Kim Woo-min Yang Jae-hoon Lee Ho-joon, but I came out with a ‘surprise tactic’ to change Yang Jae-hoon to the front and Hwang Sun-woo to the back.

[Lee Jung-hoon/Swimming team coach: Jae-hoon was psychologically uneasy because he kept trying to protect himself if he was in the middle, so he was psychologically uneasy because he was trying to protect himself if there was a little gap, so we just need to come in together, so we can come in one second apart, so let’s go for number one].

We analyzed each player’s style and psychology, and it worked. Yang Jae-hoon held his own among the Chinese and Japanese powerhouses, Lee Ho-joon pulled away, Kim Woo-min widened the gap, and Hwang Sun-woo took over.

After a strong start, middle and long-distance standout Kim Woo-min struck gold again a short time later in the 1500m freestyle.