With the clock ticking down to the start of the 2014 Asian Games in the South Korean city of Incheon, the host nation will look to maintain its edge over archrival Japan once again.

The countdown will reach 100 days on Wednesday for the Sept. 19-Oct. 4 Asian Games in Incheon, a metropolitan city just west of Seoul.

Incheon is the third South Korean host of the largest multisport competition on the continent, after Seoul in 1986 and Busan in 2002.

An estimated 14,000 athletes and officials are expected to compete for 439 gold medals in 36 sports, 28 of which are part of the Olympic Games.

China has long dominated the Asian competition, having topped the medal table in every Asiad since 1982. Over that stretch, South Korea has often been the second best in Asia, having edged out Japan in each of the past four events.

Competing on home soil should help South Korea stay ahead of Japan in the medal tally. In 1986 in Seoul, South Korea grabbed 93 gold medals, and 16 years later in Busan, the host captured its record 96 gold medals, more than doubling Japan’s 44 gold medals.

At the previous Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, South Korea collected 76 gold medals, 28 more than Japan.

South Korea will look to its recent Olympic stars to carry the load in Incheon.

Park Tae-hwan, a former Olympic champ in men’s freestyle swimming, will compete in a new arena named after him. Badminton star Lee Yong-dae, who has an Olympic gold in mixed doubles and a bronze in men’s doubles, will be chasing his first Asian Games gold medal.

South Korea won its Asian Games-record 13 gold medals in shooting in Guangzhou and will try for a similar haul this time around, with two pistol gold medalists from the 2012 Olympics, Jin Jong-oh and Kim Jang-mi, taking aim. (Yonhap)