19TH ASIAN GAMES
- Sunday, September 24th – Friday, September 29th (swimming)
- Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena, Hangzhou, China
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Results
- Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Finals Live Recap
- Day 5 Finals Live Recap
- Day 6 Finals Live Recap
The final night of action at the 2023 Asian Games saw additional national records bite the dust, including in the men’s 200m backstroke.
Although Olympic medalist Xu Jiayu of China grabbed the gold in a winning effort of 1:55.37, Lee Juho of South Korea put up the fastest time of his career en route to silver.
Opening in 56.79 and bringing it home in 59.75, Lee punched a final result of 1:56.54. That got him to the wall over a second ahead of the next-closest competitor, Hidekazu Takehara of Japan who bagged bronze in 1:57.63.
As for 28-year-old Lee, his quickest time entering this competition was represented by the 1:56.77 he put up in the heats of this 2back event at the 2020 Olympic Games. In Tokyo, he ultimately placed 11th in a slightly slower mark of 1:56.93.
At this year’s World Championships, Lee finished in 13th place with a time of 1:58.05
Lee’s silver medal is a major upgrade from where he landed 5 years ago at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. He made the final but placed 5th in a time of 1:59.88. That’s a huge drop from 1:59.88 to 1:56.54 this evening, with Lee entering sub-1:57 territory for the first time ever.
His performance is on-trend with the nation of Korea having improved significantly from its 2018 performance as a whole. Look for a future post outlining their shining moments from these Hangzhou Games.