 Men’s 400-meter T53 silver medalist Yoo Byung-hoon, left, and bronze medalist Jung Dong-ho pose with their medals in the unofficial event at the World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, Saturday. / Yonhap |
By Chung Min-uck
After a largely anonymous showing at home, Korea’s track and field athletes managed to generate some noise in the final two days of the world championships, which included setting a new national record in the men’s 4x100-meter relay to cap off the event Sunday.
Park Chil-sung shaved nearly three minutes off his own national record in the men’s 50-kilometer race walk for an impressive seventh-place finish, while disabled athletes Yoo Byung-hoon and Jung Dong-ho won silver and bronze medals respectively in the unofficial men’s 400-meter T53 event.
Before the Daegu event, Korea had set a modest target of producing top-10 finishers in 10 different competitions. The country came woefully short of achieving the goal, with Kim Hyun-sub, who finished sixth in the men’s 20-kilometers race last Sunday, putting up the best performance among the 60 Korean athletes who competed.
Park was happy about his performance in the men’s 50-kilometer race walk and his personal best of 3 hours 47 minutes and 13 seconds. The 29-year-old managed the race with savvy and increased his pace in the last 15 kilometers to finish seventh among 43 competitors, of which only 25 made it to the finish line.
“Setting a new national record feels great. I will work even harder for the London Olympics in 2012,” Park said.
“I was very tired with about 6 kilometers left in the race, and thought briefly about giving up, but was able to grind through by thinking about my wife and kid who were watching.”
Korea has yet to earn its stripes in men’s sprint competitions, but the 4x100-meter relay team, consisting of Yeo Ho-suah, Cho Kyu-won, Kim Kuk-young and Lim Hee-nam, inspired hope by setting a new national record of 38.94 seconds, shaving their old record by 0.1 seconds.
Kim Kun-woo also set a new record in the men’s decathlon. In the men’s 400-meter T53 event, Yoo (50.96 seconds) and Jung (50.76) conceded the gold to Germany’s Richard Colman, who finished in 49.36 seconds.
