South Korea's men's 400-meter relay team set a national record and won a bronze medal, but the medal was nearly taken away by sloppy results processing at the Asian Games organizing committee.
The team of Seo Min-jun (Seocheon County Office), Nnamdi Joel-Jin (Yecheon County Office), Lee Jae-sung (Jeonnam Gwangju City Hall) and Biwesa Daniel Gasama (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. China won in 38.17 seconds, followed by Taiwan in 38.32 seconds. The race broke the previous Korean national record.
Trouble surfaced immediately after the race. The Games' official website listed Thailand, which finished fourth in 38.49 seconds, as the bronze medalist. The organizing committee also announced Thailand in third place in its official medalist notice. The celebration on the Korean side froze in an instant.
"All we heard was that the Japanese team had filed an objection. We received no explanation whatsoever from the organizing committee," said Ha Kyung-soo, head coach of the men's sprint team. "A result that was hard to accept was simply posted on the website." Only after strong protests from the team and the Korean delegation headquarters did the organizing committee, after a considerable delay, issue a correction naming South Korea as the bronze medalist.
The Games have been dogged by criticism over poor management since the opening. On the 23rd, the official website mistakenly listed Kim Young-beom as a bronze medalist in the 800-meter freestyle relay in swimming, an event he did not compete in. With problems spreading from athletes' village accommodations, transportation and training venue assignments to judging calls and medal tallies, critics have described the operation as "the level of an amateur competition."
Korean track and field alone has faced three disputed rulings at these Games. The men's 400-meter relay team was disqualified in the preliminaries for leaving the baton exchange zone, but overturned the decision on appeal. The mixed 400-meter relay team was also disqualified after being caught up in what it described as foul play by an opposing runner, then had the result reversed on appeal and was given an additional race. The same confusion then repeated itself in the men's 400-meter relay final.
