(LEAD) (Asiad) S. Korea takes bronze in women's swimming relay

TOKYO, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea picked up bronze in the women's 4x200-meter freestyle swimming event at the Asian Games on Thursday, capping a busy day in the pool for the country in Tokyo.

Jo Hyun-ju, Hur Yeon-kyung, Han Da-kyung and Lee Song-eun posted a time of 8:01.87 at Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with China cruising to gold in 7:49.37 and Japan finishing second in 7:59.53.

Jo had South Korea in second place after her leadoff leg, but the team fell to third after the next leg by Hur. Han kept the team in third place, comfortably ahead of Hong Kong but also well behind Japan.

Lee maintained that spot for South Korea as the country won its second straight Asiad bronze in this event.

This bronze was South Korea's fifth medal in Tokyo on Thursday -- following bronze by Cho Sung-jae in the men's 200m breaststroke, silver by Park Si-eun in the women's 200m breaststroke, silver by Kim Jun-woo in the men's 800m freestyle and silver by the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team.

"We wanted to stand on the podium together and we accomplished that goal," Jo said. "Our time left some room for improvement but we are happy with this medal overall."

Han said a flu bug going around the team could have derailed the medal bid, with Lee and later Hur getting the worst of it.

"I am thankful that we still managed to finish third," Han added. "I feel like we have proven ourselves to be a worthy relay team in Asia."

While the men's freestyle relay teams have been getting the majority of the spotlight with their recent run of success, both Han and Lee offered that the women's freestyle relay swimmers are not too far behind.

"I think we are getting better and better," Lee said. "I hope we will receive more active support going forward."