Seoul International Marathon to be Aired Worldwide

The Seoul International Marathon is gearing itself up to gain worldwide recognition beyond Asia.

The 2007 Seoul International Marathon, also titled the 78th Dong-A Marathon, in which participants will depart from Sejongno Street at 8:00 a.m. on March 18, run through the heart of the city and finish in Jamsil Main Stadium, will be broadcast in 56 countries worldwide, including China, Europe, Middle East and Africa. The Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), which will be the major broadcaster for the competition beginning this year, will televise the race together with Eurosport and China’s state owned CCTV (China Central Television).

The focus of the broadcast will be to air not only the race itself but also the festive mood of the marathon race being held in the heart of the city. MBC is planning to send images of festive race where elite marathoners who can finish in two hours and six or seven minutes, some 24,000 master marathoners, and 10 million Seoul citizens alike will participate in the race, to Eurosport and CCTV.

In an effort to broadcast the Seoul International Marathon perfectly worldwide, MBC has conducted rehearsals starting in February and will air the race with state of the art equipment. Nine relay mobiles and one helicopter will be mobilized to broadcast the Seoul International Marathon.

A total of 41 cameras, including one large crane camera and four small crane cameras, will air the race. As many as 200 people will prepare for the broadcast. In other words, the Seoul International Marathon will be the single biggest sports event in Korea in terms of the number of workers and amount of equipment.

An official of MBC who will be in charge of broadcasting the race, Jin Pil-won, said, “We will use the event to promote Seoul worldwide by balancing the airing with major tourist attractions in Seoul and marathoners. We will also try to further national interests by airing the placards of the cities that are bidding to attract international competitions such as Daegu City, which declared its bid to hold the 2011 World Championship in Athletics, and Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon Province, which has already started its promotion efforts for the 2014 Winter Olympics.”

Eurosport, a multinational channel specially devoted to broadcast sports events and aired in 54 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 19 languages, will televise the event after receiving the images MBC produced via satellite.

Eurosport, which airs in 27 countries, will broadcast the marathon live at midnight on March 18 at central European time (8:00 a.m. in Korea) for two hours and 30 minutes, and air the 60-minute highlights of the event at 3:45 p.m. on the same day.

yjongk@donga.com