South Korean roller skater Jung Cheol Won committed a cardinal sin of sport yesterday by celebrating too early, with his "big mistake" costing his country an Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou.
Jung was left red-faced after being the anchor for his three-man team in the men's 3,000-meter relay final.
Thinking he had easily beaten Huang Yu-lin, he eased up and raised his arms in celebration, only for the Taiwanese skater to lunge with his leg across the line first in four minutes 05.692 seconds to win by one-hundredth of a second.
"I made a rather big mistake. I didn't come at full speed to the finish line. I let my guard down too early," said Jung. "I am very sorry. I apologize to my teammates and to our fans who supported us. We all worked very hard together for this and it's all my fault."
Huang said it was a "miracle" that Taiwan won.
"I realized they were celebrating, but I wanted to tell them, while you were celebrating, I was still fighting," he said. "I wasn't sure whether I had reached the finish line in time. I thought it was such a shame that I was just a little bit short, and then the results came up on the screen showing that I had won ... it was just a miracle."
Taiwan's women rubbed salt in the wounds by winning their 3,000m relay final, also consigning South Korea to silver.
Meanwhile, a North Korean weightlifter broke a world record for the third women's event running.
Kim Il Gyong, who appears to have last competed internationally as a 14-year-old junior in 2018, set a new snatch record of 111 kilograms on her way to gold in the women's 59kg class. The 20-year-old finished with a 246kg total, with China's Luo Shifang taking silver and Taiwan's Kuo Hsing-chun bronze.
On Saturday Ri Song Gum broke two world records in the women's 49kg before Kang Hyong Yong set world records in snatch, clean and jerk, and combined on her way to gold in the women's 55kg class.
Read: Two bronze medals for HK
Jung Cheol Won leads Huang Yu-lin during the 3,000m relay final. AP
