(LEAD) (Asiad) S. Korea wins bronze in mixed medley relay with new nat'l record

TOKYO, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea collected its second straight Asian Games bronze medal in the mixed 4x100-meter medley relay swimming event Wednesday.

The quartet of Kim Seung-won, Choi Dong-yeol, An Se-hyeon and Kim Young-beom posted a new national record time of 3:44.12 for third place behind China (3:40.38) and Japan (3:43.98) at Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

The previous national record was 3:46.78, set in winning bronze at the previous Asian Games in 2023.

Kim Young-beom now has four medals in Tokyo, having previously earned gold in the men's 50m freestyle, silver in the 100m freestyle and bronze in the men's 4x100m medley relay.

Kim Seung-won, 16, picked up her third medal of the competition and her second of Wednesday. The relay medal came about an hour after she won bronze in the women's 100m backstroke.

Choi also competed in the men's 4x100m medley relay.

An, competing at her first Asian Games since 2018 at age 30, picked up her fourth career medal. She was a member of the bronze medal-winning team in the mixed 4x100m medley relay in 2018.

South Korea sent out Lee Eun-ji, Park Si-eun, Kim Ji-hun and Hwang Sun-woo for the morning's heats in the mixed medley relay, and these four also received bronze medals for their contribution.

This gives Hwang five medals in Tokyo, including silver in the men's 200m freestyle Wednesday evening.

In the final, South Korea was in fifth after Kim Seung-won's opening backstroke leg. Choi pushed South Korea to fourth in his breaststroke portion, and An kept South Korea in fourth after her 100m butterfly leg.

Kim Young-beom then anchored South Korea to bronze with his final split of 47.27 seconds, easily the fastest freestyle leg in the final with no one else even under 50 seconds.

The 20-year-old Kim nearly caught Nagisa Ikemoto at the end, as South Korea finished 0.14 second behind Japan.

"Maybe I should have grown my arms," Kim deadpanned. "But it still means a lot to have improved our national record by more than two seconds."

An said she has a much different perspective on her bronze medal this time compared with eight years ago.

"I was not very happy with my bronze medal back then, but today, I could not be any happier," she said. "I just want to thank all my teammates. I have no regrets about the way I swam today."

Choi, 27, joked that the bronze medal was a "great collaboration of the MZ generation and older folks."

"Seung-won and Young-beom bring so much spunky energy, and they competed with so much confidence on such a big stage," Choi noted. "They inspired me and Se-hyeon. We have been breaking national records at a pretty good rate, and I hope we can be even more competitive not just in Asia, but worldwide."

Kim Young-beom will take another crack at a medal Thursday in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.

"I will try to make my arms longer tonight," Kim said with a straight face, as his teammates doubled over in laughter. "I would love to win a close race for a change."