South Korea cyclists swept all two gold medals on offer on the opening day of road cycling events of the Asian games on Saturday, upsetting the hopes of Iran and Kazakhstan to win the gold medal in men's individual time trial.
Choe Hyeongmin, 20, completed the 53.4km course in time of 1 hour 8 minutes 16.12 seconds to win by more than 10 seconds. Kyrghystan's Eugen Wacker took the silver with Iran's Hossein Askari claiming the bronze.
"I am very glad. Though I targeted the gold medal before the race, it is still beyond my expectations," said Choe.
But Askari, silver medalist of Doha Asian Games, felt quite sad and disappointed.
"I never heard of the South Korean rider before. The people of Asia have known me for about 20 years and (sixth placed) Andrey (Andrey Mizurov from Kazakhstan) for 15 years. However, Choe was fantastic."
"I feel a little disappointed about the result. I sacrificed my family life for training. I didn't go on a vacation with my wife. I have competed in three Olympic Games. Here, I wanted to win the gold medal," said Askari.
In women's side, Lee Min Hye added another gold to the medal tally for South Korea. China's Jiang Fan finished second, followed by Chanpeng Nontasin from Thailand.
"I am very happy right now. I was not as nervous as I was in the 3000m women's individual pursuit. I've prepared much better than I did for the pursuit race."
"My parents think it's a dangerous sports. When I was taking part in the pursuit race, my mother prayed for me everyday. But I only ended up with a silver medal then, so I was rather disappointed. Now with this time in the individual time trial, I finally won gold. It's a real honour for me. I thank my parents and God," said Lee Min Hye.