Kim Young-beom of South Korea reacts after setting an Asian Games record in the men's 50-meter freestyle heat at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo on Monday.   Yonhap
Kim Young-beom of South Korea reacts after setting an Asian Games record in the men's 50-meter freestyle heat at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo on Monday. Yonhap

Kim Young-beom raced to the men's 50-meter freestyle swimming gold medal in record-breaking style at the Asian Games on Monday.

The 20-year-old won the shortest swimming event with a new Asian Games record time of 21.66 seconds at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the Japanese capital.

In the heats held earlier Monday, Kim had set an Asian Games record with 21.71 seconds, bettering the previous record of 21.72 seconds set by fellow Korean Ji Yu-chan when he won the 2023 Asiad gold.

Just hours later, Kim broke his own mark by 0.05 second to deliver South Korea its first swimming gold of this year's Asian Games.

Kim had earlier won silver in the 100 m freestyle Sunday.

Ji got the bronze medal this time in 21.94 seconds, with Ho Ian Yentou of Hong Kong taking silver in 21.76 seconds. (Yonhap)