Believing he had comfortably outpaced his competitor, Huang Yu-lin of Taiwan, Jung eased up and raised his arms in celebration. However, to his shock, Huang Yu-lin lunged across the finish line first, winning by a mere one hundredth of a second with a time of 4 minutes and 05.692 seconds.
In a moment of reflection, Jung admitted his costly mistake, saying, “I made a rather big mistake. I didn’t come at full speed to the finish line. I let my guard down too early. I am very sorry. I apologize to my teammates and to our fans who supported us. We all worked very hard together for this, and it’s all my fault.”
Huang from Taiwan considered his victory a “miracle” and credited his coach for instilling in him the principle of never giving up. He revealed his thoughts during the race, saying, “I realized they were celebrating, but I wanted to tell them, while you were celebrating, I was still fighting. I wasn’t sure whether I had reached the finish line in time. I thought it was such a shame that I was just a little bit short, and then the results came up on the screen showing that I had won by one hundredth of a second, and it was just a miracle.”
Adding to South Korea’s disappointment, Taiwan’s women won the 3,000m relay final, claiming victory and relegating South Korea to a silver medal.
(With AFP inputs)