Fifteen-year-old Choi Ji-woon has won a gold medal in the youth sailing dinghy event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Choi secured victory on October 3 at the Gaiyo Yacht Harbor in Aichi, Japan, finishing the 12-race series with a total of 25 penalty points.
This marks the first gold medal for South Korea in youth sailing at the Asian Games since Park Seong-bin won in the U-16 Optimist category at the 2014 Incheon Games.
In sailing, points are awarded based on race rankings, with 1 point for first place, 2 points for second, and so on. The competitor with the lowest total score wins.
Choi, regarded as the 'next-generation ace' of South Korean sailing, maintained a strong position early in the competition but fell to fourth place after races 8 to 10.
In the final race, Choi mounted a comeback, finishing first in the 11th race and second in the final 12th race, tying for first place overall.
With a total of 25 points, he was tied with Singapore's Koh Ian, but Choi claimed the gold medal based on the tiebreaker rule, which favored him for having more high-ranking finishes.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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