(Asiad) Swimming coach calls new champion work in progress

TOKYO, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- Kim Young-beom may have won two medals in two days at the Asian Games, including a gold medal in record-breaking fashion, but his coach still thinks the 20-year-old swimmer has much more to give.

Kim Young-beom raced to gold in the men's 50-meter freestyle at the Asian Games in Tokyo on Monday with an Asian Games record time of 21.66 seconds. About 24 hours earlier, Kim won silver in the 100m freestyle in 47.65 seconds, just 0.04 behind the winner, Pan Zhanle of China.

"Young-beom posted really good times in both the 50m and 100m, but I don't think he is a complete swimmer yet," coach Kim Hyo-youl told reporters Monday at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. "He is still in his developmental stage. He is still chasing other great athletes, and he has a long way to go."

After losing to Pan over the final stretch in the 100m final, Kim Young-beom called his race "amateurish," given how he had gotten ahead of himself when he noticed he was ahead of Pan, and he only ended up losing his rhythm.

Coach Kim agreed with the assessment but said the young swimmer, at this stage in his career, had no other choice but to go hard from the start.

"People may think, 'He was leading the race. How did he end up losing?' But Young-beom cannot afford to pace himself and ease into the race," coach Kim said. "He has to get into a high gear right away and try to hang on until the end."

The coach, on the other hand, gave kudos to the young swimmer for putting in the work to get to this point.

"Honestly, after he had a great fall last year, I thought he would take a big step forward early this year. But he failed to meet my expectations," the coach said. "But he kept his head down and put in the effort. He also spent time doing extra work outside our national training center."

The coach agreed that Kim Young-beom's outgoing and ebullient personality can help lift himself and others around him but insisted the athlete is not all fun and games.

"When he trains, he is very serious. He asks for extra feedback from the staff and spends a lot of time watching his own races, trying to fix whatever needs to be fixed," coach Kim said. "He is not just this goofy kid. He is a really driven swimmer."