Bolt to Visit Korea for Daegu Meeting
By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
The world's fastest man, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, will be in Korea later this month for the 2009 Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting.
Athletic's biggest sprinting star will look to dazzle Korean track fans in the 100 meters at the event, which begins Sept. 25.
The Jamaican runner has revived interest in track and field since his incredible performance at the Beijing Olympics last year, where he set world records in winning the 100-meter and 200-meter events and the 4x100-meter relay. But his appearance in Daegu later this month may come at a steep price for organizers.
Bolt is currently resting in Madrid, Spain after again setting the track on fire at the world championships in Berlin, where he shattered his own world records in the 100 and 200 meters, lowering his times to 9.58 and 19.19 seconds.
He will run at the Grand Prix in Shanghai, China on Sept. 20 and travel to Korea the following day.
Organizers said convincing Bolt to race in Daegu was not easy task but after negotiations with his agent, Bolt agreed to run.
``It was really hard to get him come to Korea,'' the committee official said.
The committee had tried to get Bolt to come to the event last year but the 23-year-old declined, because he was nursing an injury and it was so soon after the Olympics.
However, some speculate the real reason was that the appearance fee offered by organizers was not lucrative enough, especially given his stardom had reached its peak in Beijing.
Though the Daegu committee did not reveal the cost of bringing Bolt to South Korea, some say it could be more than $500,000.
Bolt will get the full Hollywood movie star treatment upon his arrival and in return, the committee can now promote the event using the ``Thunder'' Bolt, to attempt to raise its profile in a country where athletics is a niche sport at best.
With Bolt on board, the event may provide a good indication of whether the public will come out to see the 2011 IAAF World Championship, which will be held in Daegu.
In Europe, where interest in athletics is high, fans filled the 76,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Berlin last month.
The sport does not enjoy a high level of interest in Korea, a problem perhaps exacerbated by the sorry state of the country's athletics program.
As such, convincing Bolt ― probably one of the only figures in the sport who is well-known to most Korean sports fans, along with pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia ― to come to Daegu was crucial to attracting a large crowd.
With the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Korea showed it was capable of holding a well-attended major sporting event but athletics will be a harder sell.
The committee is planning an advertising blitz for the 2011 world championships, with the ambitious hope of filling the 66,000-seat Daegu Stadium.
The event later this month will serve as a means to promote interest in the sport ahead of 2011.
``If they know Bolt and think he's wonderful, they are potential fans who will head to Daegu in 2011,'' the committee official said.
``We've got a chance if we work very hard. We are going to make our dream of a huge audience a reality,'' he added.