S. Korea looking to win medals early and often at Hangzhou Asiad

An aerial view shows the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, which will host competition at the Asian Games, during sunset in Hangzhou, China, July 27. AFP-Yonhap

The countdown for the 19th Asian Games, taking place in Hangzhou, China, will reach 30 days Thursday, and South Korea's preparation for redemption will only intensify.

The competition, delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will open Sept. 23, and South Korea will try not to waste time winning medals.

Preliminary action for some sports will begin Sept. 19, but the first medals won't be awarded until Sept. 24, the day after the opening ceremony.

South Korea has set out to pull off a gold medal sweep in modern pentathlon, and the ambitious bid will begin with the women's individual event on the morning of Sept. 24, with three other finals ― men's individual and team, and women's team ― to follow later the same day.

Other athletes will vie for South Korea's first medal in Hangzhou, including freestyle swimmer Hwang Sun-woo in the men's 100 meters. Hwang is a two-time world championships medalist in the 200m freestyle, and the 100m isn't his main race. He will be battling Chinese teen sensation Pan Zhanle, who owns the Asian record in the 100m freestyle at 47.22 seconds. Hwang had the previous record of 47.56.

Also on Sept. 24, Kang Young-mi will try to win her second straight gold medal in the women's individual epee, with the reigning world champion from South Korea, Song Se-ra, also expected to be in the mix.

If South Korea fails to pick up any medals on Sept. 24, the country will have a few more cracks the following day. Jang Jun, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist and the 2022 world silver medalist in men's 58kg taekwondo, is a medal contender in the flyweight event. Sabre fencer Gu Bon-gil will be going for his fourth consecutive gold in the men's individual event.

South Korean swimmer Hwang Sun-woo takes part in an open training session at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, Aug. 16. Yonhap

In the swimming pool, Hwang Sun-woo will be leading the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team. Hwang, Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon and Yang Jae-hoon set a new national record time of 7:04.07 while finishing sixth at the world championships in Japan last month. They were the only Asian team in the final then and should be favored to take a place on the podium in Hangzhou.

The Asian Games will finish Oct. 8. The penultimate day of the competition will see the finals for baseball, men's football, men's basketball and women's volleyball.

South Korea is chasing its fourth straight gold medal in baseball and its third straight in men's football. New Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Lee Kang-in will be leading the way for the young Taegeuk Warriors in Hangzhou.

In both men's hoops and women's volleyball, South Korea will look to do better than the bronze medal from 2018.

The finals for the men's and women's individual archery are also scheduled for Oct. 7, with triple Olympic gold medalist An San and double Olympic champion Kim Je-deok competing in their first Asian Games.

The women's singles final in badminton will also take place Oct. 7, and An Se-young, world No. 1 from South Korea, is considered a gold medal favorite.

South Korean badminton player An Se-young takes part in an open training session at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, Aug. 16. Yonhap

In early October, PGA Tour veterans Im Sung-jae and Kim Si-woo will wrap up the men's golf competition, with professionals being allowed to play for the first time.

High jumper Woo Sang-hyeok will try to soar for his first Asian Games gold medal, after taking home silver in 2018.

Led by the gaming legend Faker, South Korea should also be in the mix for medals in esports, which will make their Asian Games debut with medals offered in games such as "League of Legends," "Street Fighter V" and "FIFA Online 4."

South Korea is set to send its largest-ever Asian Games delegation, with 1,180 athletes and officials competing in 39 out of 40 sports.

Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain acknowledges fans after playing Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors during a preseason friendly match at Busan Asiad Main Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan, Aug. 3. Yonhap

For decades, the Asian Games have been dominated by the three sporting giants in the region: China, South Korea and Japan. These three countries have finished in the top three in the medal table, in one order or another, in every competition since 1978.

South Korea finished in second place behind China at every Asiad from 1998 to 2014, but that streak ended in 2018, as South Korea ended up in third place, behind China and Japan. South Korea won 49 gold medals, 26 fewer than Japan and its lowest total since 1982.

South Korea's 2018 total represented a drop of 30 gold medals from 2014, while Japan won 28 more gold medals in 2018 than it had four years earlier.

China is a virtual lock to finish first again, leaving South Korea and Japan to duke it out for second place.

Japan has long outpaced South Korea in athletics and swimming, the two events with the most medals at stake, and South Korea must make up for those losses elsewhere.

North Korea's return to an international sporting scene in Hangzhou, following a pandemic-forced absence and a subsequent ban issued by the International Olympic Committee, will add geopolitical implications to the competition.

The state of inter-Korean relations is vastly different now than at the previous Asian Games in 2018, when the two Koreas marched under the same flag at the opening ceremony and assembled joint pan-Korean teams in women's basketball, canoeing and rowing. The Koreas combined to win a gold and two bronze medals in canoeing's dragon boat and captured silver in women's hoops.

With virtually no hope of a last-minute turnaround, the two Koreas will be going up against one another as foes this time. (Yonhap)