Nam Dong-heon Wins Asian Games Individual Dressage Gold for South Korea
Nam Dong-heon claimed South Korea’s first Asian Games individual dressage title in 12 years, edging China’s Yu Jiayi by 0.140 point in Tokyo.
South Korean rider Nam Dong-heon won the individual dressage gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, restoring the country to the top of the event after a 12-year wait.
Nam and his horse Leonidas earned 75.190 points in the final at Equestrian Park in Tokyo. The result put him narrowly ahead of China’s Yu Jiayi, who took silver with 75.050 points. Palestine’s Aleksandra Maksakova secured bronze on 74.935 points. The margin separating first and second place was just 0.140 point.
The victory gave South Korea its first Asian Games individual dressage title since the 2014 competition in Incheon. Korean riders had won every individual dressage gold medal from 2002 through 2014, but that run ended in 2018. At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, South Korea did not win an equestrian dressage medal for the first time since the discipline entered the Asian Games program in 1986.
Nam arrived in the individual final in strong form. He and Leonidas scored 70.559 points in Friday’s team dressage final, which also served as the qualifying round for the individual competition. Their mark was the highest among all participants in that round. South Korea earned the team silver medal, giving Nam his first podium finish of the Games before he raised his score substantially in the individual final.
The gold and silver medals carry particular significance for Nam because he had left his first two Asian Games appearances without a medal. He said he was pleased to break through at his third Games and highlighted the team’s shared podium finish as the most memorable moment of the competition. He also thanked Leonidas for performing at his best after the pair had endured difficult periods together.
Dressage tests the precision and harmony of horse and rider through a memorized sequence of prescribed movements. Judges assess factors including the horse’s gaits, responsiveness and forward energy, alongside the rider’s execution. Small differences in those scores can determine the medals, as Sunday’s closely contested final demonstrated.
Nam’s performance added a new chapter to South Korea’s record in Asian Games dressage. By improving from the qualifying round to the final and holding off two challengers separated by fractions of a point, he ended the country’s long wait for another individual title.