Cho and Kim Win Asian Games Canoe Gold to Become Korea’s First Double Champions
Cho Kwang-hee and Kim Hyo-bin captured the men’s K2 500-meter canoe sprint title at the 2026 Asian Games, giving South Korea its first double gold medalists of the competition and its first victory in the event in 36 years.
South Korean paddlers Cho Kwang-hee and Kim Hyo-bin won the men’s kayak double 500-meter title at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday, becoming the country’s first athletes to claim two gold medals at this year’s competition.
The pair finished the K2 500-meter final at Miyoshi Lake Canoe Course in Aichi Prefecture in 1 minute, 31.859 seconds. Their victory delivered South Korea’s 11th gold medal of the Games and restored the country to the top of an event it had not won at the Asian Games since 1990.
Cho and Kim had already made history a day earlier as members of the victorious men’s K4 500-meter crew, which secured South Korea’s first Asian Games gold in that discipline. Their back-to-back wins made them the first double champions on the South Korean team at the 2026 Games.
Friday’s race was decided by a narrow margin. South Korea reached the halfway point in 43.73 seconds and was running second after the first 250 meters. Cho and Kim accelerated in the second half, moved into the lead and held off a late charge from the Japanese crew.
Japan covered the closing 250 meters in 47.616 seconds, the fastest second-half split in the field, but South Korea reached the line 0.317 seconds ahead. Japan finished in 1:32.176. The small gap underlined the importance of the Korean pair’s surge after the turn and their ability to maintain speed under pressure in the final stretch.
The result also carried personal significance for Cho. At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, he earned silver in the same K2 500-meter event with Jang Sang-won. Competing with Kim this time, Cho converted that runner-up finish into gold.
South Korea’s previous Asian Games victory in the men’s K2 500 meters came at the 1990 Beijing Games, when Cheon In-sik and Park Cha-geun took the title. Cho and Kim’s win therefore ended a 36-year wait in the event while strengthening South Korea’s canoe sprint campaign in Japan.
For Kim, the two victories established him alongside Cho as one of the early standout performers of the Korean delegation. For the team, the result added momentum to a canoe program that has now produced consecutive days of gold-medal performances at the Games.