17th Asian Games INCHEON 2014

The biggest Asian Games news yesterday was the inter-Korean football match for women. Regardless of the ongoing political tension between the two Koreas, South Korean spectators cheered for not only Team South Korea, but Team North Korea as well.

North Korea ended up winning the semifinal game 2-1 on a late goal, which means the South Korean female footballers will have to go through one more match against Vietnam on October 1st, in a battle for the bronze medal.



We got some better news for other events though, for instance South Korea saw its long gold medal drought end in canoe, as Cho Gwang-hee picked up gold in the K-1 (kayak single) 200-meter race in the men's sprint event. That was the country’s first Asian Games gold medal in the discipline since 1990.



In tennis, Lim Yong-kyu and Chung Hyeon clinched gold in the men's doubles, ending the country's 28-year gold medal drought in the event. The last time the host country won the men’s doubles title was back in 1986.



Those were the only gold medals we saw for the host country on Monday, but the women's hockey team and men's handball team both advanced to the finals, and in athletics, the men's 4x100 meter relay team kept its medal hopes alive by qualifying for the final as well, so those are some more chances for medals that we can look forward to.



Speaking of events to look forward to, the men’s hockey semifinal match between South Korea and India started at 4:30pm Tuesday, Korea Time. South Korean men will face off with the Japanese team in a water polo semifinals match at 7pm.



South Korea football team will be battling against Thailand in a quarterfinal match at 8pm Tuesday.



Taekwondo preliminaries were held throughout the day and the finals will be held later today, so we’ll have the results for those for you tomorrow.



The highly anticipated rhythmic gymnastics will kick off on Wednesday with Son Yeon-jae participating in the qualifying round. She became the first Asian rhythmic gymnast to stand on the podium at the world championships and finished fourth in the all-round finals. So.. no pressure or anything, but yes, expectations are high for more podium time for her.

South Korea continues to hold the second place in the medals table with 44 gold medals as of Tuesday afternoon. It may be a distant second to China’s 113 golds… but it’s still a firm second place, followed by Japan’s 35 golds.