Korean Fair Play Committee Gives Awards to Song, Chun
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Hanhwa Eagles veteran pitcher Song Jin-woo and women's basketball star Chun Joo-weon received fair play awards from the Korean Fair Play Committee (KFPC) Wednesday for their show of sportsmanship.
It was the first annual awards issued by the KFPC, which was launched last year and is now headed by World Taekwondo Federation President Choue Chung-won. The candidates and winners of the awards were decided by a seven-member screening committee, which analyzed in-game action, peer reputation and off-field activities of the players.
"We will present the Korean Fair Play Awards every year, thus helping bring about a brighter society by spreading our fair play campaign in a more organized and systematic way to all sectors of Korean life," said Choue during the awarding ceremony at the Olympic Parktel in southern Seoul.
Song, a 41-year-old starter for the Eagles and the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO)'s all-time leader with 203 wins, had established a clean-cut reputation among his colleagues and coaches throughout his career that balanced with his competitive fire.
Chun, a 35-year-old point guard for the Shinhan Bank Sbirds, has long served the role as team leader for both club and country and is one of the most respected figures in women's hoops.
The honors for the team division were shared by South Korea's men and women's national basketball teams, while volleyball international referee Kim Kun-tae also received a special prize.
The KFPC serves as South Korea's national body of the Paris-based IFPC (International Fair Play Committee), which issues awards annually in the three categories of ``act of fair play,'' ``sports career,'' and ``promotion of fair play.''
Iran's Hadi Saei Bonehkohal, who won the gold medal in taekwondo in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, was voted by the IFPC as the World Fair Player of the Year in 2005 for his humanitarian efforts.
The KFPC also announced Wednesday its final list of 45 officials at the awarding ceremony, which included Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) President Kim Chung-kil and Park Seh-jik, former president of the organizing committee for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Both Kim and Park will serve as honorary presidents of the KFPC.