Three-Way Tie for Gold at Asian Games

Three winners are tied for the gold medal in the men’s artistic gymnastics pommel horse finals being held at Aspire Hall in Qatar, Doha, at the 15th Asian Games. South Korea’s Kim Soo-myun, North Korea’s Cho Jong Chol, and Japan’s Tomita Hiroyuki all got the same 15.375 points, a first for this year’s games.

At a general awards ceremony, the flags of the second, first and third places are hung, with the height differing according to the ranking, and the national anthem of the first place winner is played.

But what if there are three winners?

On this day, the flags were raised with the Japanese flag in the middle, and the South Korean, and North Korean flags on the left and right, and the same height. Without any knowledge of the game’s result, it would have seemed that Japan was first place, South Korea was second, and North Korea was in third place.

The anthems were also played in the order of Japan, South Korea, and North Korea.

This is according to the rules of an international contest. If there are multiple winners, the order of awarding prizes follows the order the countries are registered. The registered names of the three countries are Japan, Korea (formal title is Republic of Korea), and PRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), and the ceremonies were decided on the order of their alphabetic initial.

why@donga.com