Triple Olympic archery champion An San will be hoping to deliver success for South Korea at the Asian Games ©Getty Images

South Korea is reportedly targeting a return to the top two in the medals table at this year's delayed Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.

A run of five successive Games ranked as runner-up in the medal standings came to an end at Jakarta Palembang 2018.

A total of 177 medals - South Korea's lowest tally since New Delhi 1982 - saw them finish in third position behind table-topping China and second-placed Japan.

China has topped the medals table at every edition of the Asian Games since 1982, with South Korea and Japan often battling it out for the next highest places.

After falling behind Japan five years ago, Yonhap News Agency is reporting that South Korea has "high hopes" of returning to second spot.

Olympic medallist Yeo Seo-jeong is tipped to suceeed at Hangzhou 2022 ©Getty Images
Olympic medallist Yeo Seo-jeong is tipped to suceeed at Hangzhou 2022 ©Getty Images

The report highlights a series of athletes that are expected to be gold medal contenders for the South Korean team.

Among those include archers An San and Kim Je-deok and artistic gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong following their success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

An became a triple Olympic champion in the Japanese capital in 2021, while Kim bagged two archery golds and Yeo earned a vault bronze.

Other big hopes for South Korea include high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok, who claimed silver at last year's World Athletics Championships, and 19-year-old swimmer Hwang Sun-woo, who also bagged world silver in 2021.

The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games are scheduled to take place from September 23 to October 8 2023 after being postponed a year due to COVID-19 restrictions in China.