By Kang Seung-woo
Only eight months after proudly hosting the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Daegu seems to be already losing its interest in track and field, holding the World Challenge Meeting with little effort to promote it.
The Daegu Championships Meeting took place Wednesday at Daegu Stadium, but even people living in the nation’s third-largest city were unaware of it, let alone those outside the city.
“I did not know the event was held here until the competition was on the sports news,” said Park Hyun-wook, who lives near the stadium.
“It does not make sense that they did not go all-out to advertise it.”
Park added that there were few banners promoting the meet on the street.
The competition, established in 2005 to promote the city’s bid for the world championships, has taken place annually and was upgraded to an IAAF World Challenge Meeting in 2010.
The challenge meets are the IAAF’s third-highest level of competition behind the world championships and Diamond League and there are only 15 events in the world including the one in Daegu.
No broadcasting added fuel to public indifference.
The organizing committee was in negotiations with Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), which reportedly wanted 150 million won ($127,650), but both sides failed to reach an agreement, resulting in people finding the results via the nightly news.
In addition, unlike previous events, this year’s edition did not feature as many high-profile athletes that could attract people to the stadium, although the organizing committee said about 30 participants had managed a podium finish at previous world championships or Olympics.
Since 2005, many star athletes including Jamaica’s world record holder Usain Bolt, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay, star pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang were invited to Daegu, but this year’s biggest draw was Carmelita Jeter of the United States, a double gold medalist at last year’s world championships, and Justin Gatlin, a former Olympic and world champion who is regaining form after a four-year doping ban.
The committee attributed public indifference to the slashed budget by Daegu Metropolitan Council.
The city spent 3.5 billion won on last year’s event, held ahead of the world championships, but its budget was cut to 2.8 billion won.
“The council reviews the budget for the championships every year. Initially, we planned to bump it up for promotion, invitations and other things,” an organizing committee official said.
“But the city council cut the budget.”
The Korea Association of Athletics Federations (KAAF) also said that the city set the budget at 3.5 billion won last year to promote the world championships.
The organizing committee is to continue to host the event, probably with the lowered budget, but Daegu citizens say without vastly improved interest from local residents, it is unlikely to make money.
“If the competition continues to run like this, the city had better not host it anymore,” said Kang Joo-hae, a local resident.