South Korea’s representative swimmer Park Tae-hwan, 21, celebrates after winning the men’s 100-meter freestyle race, receiving the honor of triple gold medallist for two Asian Games (Asiad) in a row.

He won the race with a time record of 48.70 seconds, surpassing the previous South Korean record by 0.24 seconds. His victory in the 100m, which is not his major event, thwarted a Japanese swimmer holds the Asian record and two Chinese leading swimmers supported by the Chinese audience.

Park is the first male swimmer in Asiad history to win three individual races at two Asian Games in a row. He previously won the 200m and 400m freestyle at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, breaking both the Asian record and South Korean record.

Jeong Da-rae cheers after winning the women’s 200m-breaststroke race the same day. Unlike Park, 19-year-old Jeong was a surprising gold medallist in women’s swimming. She finished the race with a time record of 2 minutes and 25.02 seconds. Jeong took the lead after the first 50 meters and fended off the chase by two Chinese rivals. It has been 12 years since a South Korean female swimmer won a gold medal.

Jeong was driven by emotion of her unexpected first victory in the Asiad and wept for some time. Once she regained her composure at the press conference, Jeong said “I realized I could go for the win when I saw no one ahead of me after the 100m point turn.”

As of Nov. 17, South Korea was in second place in the medal standings. North Korea also put in a strong effort, taking fourth place with five gold medals in the shooting and weightlifting.

Essential Vocabulary: representative swimmer: 대표(간판) 수영선수/in a row: 연달아/surpass: 능가하다, 뛰어넘다/surprising gold-medalist: 예상하지 못하게 금메달을 딴 선수