South Korea's men's 400-meter relay team won a hard-earned bronze medal after reaching the final through a successful appeal against its disqualification in the heats.
The national team of Seo Min-jun (Seocheon County Office), Nmadi Joel-Jin (Yecheon County Office), Lee Jae-seong (Gwangju City Hall) and Biwesa Daniel Kasama (Ansan City Hall) crossed the line third in 38.43 seconds in the men's 400-meter relay final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held on the 28th at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya, Japan. The time is a national record in the event.
The result gave the team medals at two consecutive Asian Games, following the 2023 Hangzhou Games. It was the third time South Korea has medaled in the men's 400-meter relay at the Asian Games, after a bronze at the 1986 Seoul Games and another bronze in Hangzhou.
Until shortly before the final, it was unclear whether the team would compete at all. In the relay heats the previous day, the team was disqualified for exchanging the baton outside the designated handover zone.
The team appealed immediately after the heats, and organizers reversed the ruling, allowing it to continue its medal bid.
With heavy rain falling at the stadium, South Korea was assigned Lane 1, the innermost lane. The tight curve put the team at a disadvantage, but the runners held their ground.
Lead-off runner Seo Min-jun took the start and ran the curve before handing the baton to Nmadi, South Korea's top sprinter. Nmadi built up speed on the straight, and Lee Jae-seong, a bronze medalist from the Hangzhou Asian Games, kept the momentum going as the third runner. Biwesa took the final baton and powered down the home straight to cross the line in third.
South Korea's men's 400-meter relay team has been improving rapidly. In May 2025, it broke the national record twice in succession at the World Relays with times of 38.56 and 38.51 seconds, and later that month set another national record of 38.49 seconds at the Asian Championships in Gumi, winning the title for the first time. Two months later, at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, Seo Min-jun, Joel-Jin, Lee Jae-seong and Kim Jung-yoon won South Korean track and field's first relay gold medal at a global multi-sport event, in 38.50 seconds.
