Men's Modern Pentathlon Team Also Wins Gold: "We Won the Gold Medal Too"

Second Gold Medal for Korea at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

Jeon Woongtae, Seo Changwan, and Lee Jonghyun Claim First Place

Marking Back-to-back Team Championships After 2022 Hangzhou Games

The South Korean men's modern pentathlon national team also hung gold medals around their necks.

Jeon Woongtae (Gangwon Provincial Sports Council), Seo Changwan (Jeonnam Provincial Office), and Lee Jonghyun (Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall) won the men's team event in the modern pentathlon at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Anjo Sports Park in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 20th. They took first place with a total score of 4,779 points from the combined results of the individual events. This was the second gold medal for Team Korea at these Games, following Seong Seungmin’s victory in the women’s individual modern pentathlon, which was held earlier the same day.

Wontaek Jeon (left) and Jonghyun Lee are performing a gold medal biting ceremony after winning the men's team event in modern pentathlon at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at Anjo Sports Park, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 20th. Anjo=Yonhap News Agency

The South Korean men’s modern pentathlon team also achieved two consecutive Asian Games championships in the team event. South Korea, led by Jeon Woongtae, secured the gold medal in the men's team event at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, which was held in 2023. At that time, Jeon Woongtae also won the individual event, becoming a double gold medalist.

The modern pentathlon is a sport in which a single athlete competes in fencing, swimming, obstacle event, and laser run (track plus shooting). This Asian Games marks the first time the obstacle event replaces equestrian in the event lineup. In the team event, the rankings are determined by adding together the scores of the top three athletes in the individual event for each country.

On this day, both the individual and team finals were held, with 18 athletes who advanced through the semifinals vying for medals in the individual competition. In the individual event, the "legend" Jeon Woongtae earned silver with 1,595 points, just behind China's Li Liuchang, who scored 1,598 points, while Lee Jonghyun claimed bronze with 1,593 points. Seo Changwan finished fifth with 1,591 points, helping South Korea surpass China (4,768 points) in the team aggregate score to secure the championship.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.