PARA SWIMMER LEE IN-GUK WINS ‘0.80-SECOND SILVER’ IN 100-METER BACKSTOKE, FIRST MEDAL IN NINE YEARS
Paralympic gold medalist Lee In-guk (Sport Class S14-Anshan Mayor’s Para Sports Association) won his first medal at the Para Asian Games in nine years in the 100-meter backstroke .Lee touched the touchpad second overall in the men’s 100-meter backstroke final in 1:01.41 to claim silver at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games 2022 on Thursday at the Olympic Sports Center Swimming Pool in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. He was just 0.80 seconds behind first-place finisher Naohide Yamaguchi of Japan (1:00.61).
Lee had qualified for the final with a meet record of 1:01.83 in the preliminaries earlier in the day, but Yamaguchi rewrote the record in the final. Lee won gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2014 Incheon Para Asian Games and went on to win gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games, setting a meet record and Asian record (59.82).He was unsuccessful at the 2018 Para Asian Games in Indonesia, but won his first Asian Games medal in nine years in Hangzhou. Lee will go for his second medal of the day in the 400-meter freestyle mixed relay at 10:26 p.m. KST .Meanwhile, Kang Jung-jeong, who competed in the women’s 100-meter backstroke final, was the fifth swimmer to touch the touchpad with a time of 1:14.89.Kang will also be aiming for her first medal in the mixed medley 슬롯게이밍 relay with Lee In-guk.