[Nagoya AG] 14-Year-Old Rising Star Kang Yeonseo Wins Bronze in Women's Compound Archery Individual Event

Victory Over Teammate Park Jungyoon, 145-143

Adds Individual Bronze to Team Medal at Debut Games

Fourteen-year-old Kang Yeonseo (Seongsa Middle School) claimed the bronze medal in the women's compound archery individual event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

On October 1, at the bronze medal match held at the Okazaki Chuo General Park Multipurpose Plaza in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, Kang Yeonseo defeated her national teammate Park Jungyoon (Changwon City Hall) by a score of 145-143. With this victory, Kang added an individual bronze to the team bronze medal she had already earned in her first-ever Asian Games appearance.

Kang first picked up a bow in an elementary school experience class and was selected as the youngest-ever archery national team member in April, marking her as a rising star in the sport.

14-year-old prodigy Kang Yeonseo celebrates after winning the bronze medal match in the women's compound individual event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held on the 1st at the Okazaki Chuo General Park Multipurpose Plaza in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Okazaki=Yonhap News Agency

Earlier that day, Kang advanced to the semifinals after defeating Wu Nier (China) 145-140 in the quarterfinals, but she narrowly lost to Nurisa Dian Ashurifa (Indonesia) 143-147 in the semifinals. Park Jungyoon, meanwhile, suffered a close loss to Amaya Amparo Cojuangco (Philippines) 141-142 in her semifinal match.

This is the first time that a Korean athlete has not reached the finals in the women's compound archery individual event at the Asian Games since the event was introduced at the 2014 Incheon Games. At the Incheon Games, Choi Bomin and Seok Jihyun faced off in the finals, winning gold and silver respectively. At the 2022 Hangzhou Games, which were held in 2023, So Chaewon clinched the silver medal. There was no individual event at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

In the bronze medal match, Kang took the lead in the first end by shooting a perfect 30 with three consecutive 10s, edging ahead 30-29. After the second end, she extended her advantage to 59-57, and in the final fifth end, she scored 29 points to maintain her two-point lead until the end.

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