(Asiad) S. Korea snatches 4 gold medals on 1st day after opening ceremony

NAGOYA/TOKYO, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea wasted little time jumping into the thick of the medal race at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, as it swept up four gold medals and 14 medals overall Sunday, the first day following the opening ceremony in central Japan.

The first gold medal came, as expected, from modern pentathlon, where Seong Seung-min soared to the women's individual title. She became the first South Korean female pentathlete to win an Asian Games individual title.

Seong finished with 1,492 points after competing in fencing, swimming, obstacle course racing and laser run, a combination of running and shooting at Anjo Sports Park in Anjo, just southeast of the main host city of Nagoya, Zhang Mingyu of China was a distant second with 1,460 points, followed by another Chinese, Wu Xiyao, with 1,447 points.

Zhang and Wu led China to the team gold medal along with Meng Xin (1,411 points), while South Korea, with Seong, Kim Un-ju (1,399) and Shin Su-min (1,380), got the silver.

A few minutes before Seong topped her competition, cyclist Shin Ji-eun delivered the country's first medal by winning bronze in the women's time trial event in road cycling.

Shin finished with a time of 36:56.14, 32.42 seconds behind the champion, Rinata Sultanova of Kazakhstan.

South Korea's second gold medal also came from modern pentathlon, with the men's team of Jun Woong-tae (1,595), Lee Jong-hyeon (1,593) and Seo Chang-wan (1,591) combined for 4,779 points. Individually, Jun and Lee won silver and bronze medals, behind Li Liuchang of China (1,598 points).

Minutes later, Lee Jun-suk then delivered South Korea's third gold of the day in teqball, where he was crowned the inaugural men's singles champion.

Lee defeated Ali Jalil Mezher Alelayawi of Iraq 2-0 (12-11, 12-5) in the final, as teqball made its Asian Games debut in Nagoya.

Teqball combines elements of football, table tennis, freestyle skills and sepaktakraw. It is played on a curved table, with players allowed to hit the ball with any part of their body except the hands and arms.

Lee, a former football midfielder who reached the fourth division in South Korea, quit his day job this year to focus on preparing for the Asian Games.

The men's basketball put a golden finishing touch, beating Japan 67-57 in the final for South Korea's first gold in 12 years.

Forward Lee Hyun-jung scored 27 points and grabbed 18 rebounds to join his mother, Seong Jeong-a, as Asian Games basketball champions. Seong won gold at the 1990 Beijing Asiad.

Also on Sunday, South Korea collected two bronze medals in soft tennis, as both the women's and the men's teams lost to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals.

There is no bronze medal contest in soft tennis, where losers of the semifinals are all awarded bronze.

In shooting, Ban Hyo-jin celebrated her 19th birthday by winning bronze in the women's 10-meter air rifle event.

In Tokyo, South Korea came away with one silver and two bronze medals on the first day of swimming.

Kim Young-beom and Hwang Sun-woo stood on the podium together as the silver and bronze medalists in the men's 100-meter freestyle at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Lee Ju-ho claimed his third straight bronze in the men's 100m backstroke.