GUANGZHOU - The chief of South Korea's Asian Games delegation on Saturday hailed the perfomrances of their athletes at the halfway of the Nov 12-27 event and said the medals they have already won are beyond their expectations.

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South Korea has won 129 medals, including 43 gold, after six days of competition to hold onto firmly the runner-up position after China on the medals table. Japan is in third place with only 24 gold medals.

"Our athletes have been performing well until this moment. Now the situation is beyond our expectations," Lee Kee Heung, Chef de Mission of the South Korean delegation, told a press conference.

"If the athletes keep on working well, especially in archery and wrestling, we believe we can get more than 70 gold medals this time."

South Korea has sent a 1,000-strong delegation to Guangzhou, hoping to overpass last Asiad's 58-gold performance in Doha. Archery, wrestling and taekwondo are South Korea's key sports.