By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, is expected to dazzle Korean track fans at the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting on May 19.
The organizing committee of the annual event announced Monday that the Jamaican star sprinter would make his first 100-meter appearance of the 2010 season in Daegu, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The 23-year-old holds world records in the 100 and 200 meters at 9.58 and 19.19 seconds, respectively, set at last year's World Championships in Berlin.
``It is significant that Bolt will open his season with the 100 meters in Daegu,'' said Moon Dong-hoo, vice president of the organizing committee for the Daegu World Championships in Athletics in 2011.
``Bolt is a really popular figure in Korea and everyone hopes that he will set a new record.''
The committee had tried to get Bolt to come to the event the last two years, but he declined, because he was nursing an injury after the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and wrapped up the season earlier despite a verbal agreement in 2009.
Instead, last year, it invited former world-record holders in the 100, Tyson Gay of the United States and Asafa Powell of Jamaica, and Gay set a new competition record, reaching the finish line in 9.94 seconds, the first sub 10-second time on Korean soil since the 1988 Olympics.
The annual event, which started in 2005 to promote the city's bid for the world championships, and has brought in high-profile athletes, such as pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia and hurdler Liu Xiang of China.
From this year, the event is part of the newly formed IAAF World Challenge, as a series of 13 one-day invitational meetings.
Along with Bolt, American Carmelita Jeter, the fastest active runner in the women's 100 meters, will participate.
With Bolt and Jeter on board, the committee is still in negotiations with other big-name athletes to promote this year's contest and next year's World Championships.