Northeast Asia to host 2 major world championships in 2011

The Korean stock market saw a record-high close on the first day of trading this year, breaking the previous mark set on Oct. 31, 2007.

With the index reaching the new mark, investors have high expectations for Korea`s economic growth this year and started to dream big.

New records arouse enthusiasm and passion and show that humanity and society continue to make strides. Sports are an arena where new records seem even hotter than in the stock market. People cheer on athletes who overcome barriers and raise the bar higher.

This year lacks grand sporting events like last year such as the World Cup soccer finals and the Winter Olympics. Yet many events in which athletes can set records by a margin of 0.01 or 0.1 of a second still drive fans crazy.

The World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo will open in March, the World Aquatic Championships in Shanghai in July, and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, Korea, in August and September.

With the three events to take place in Northeast Asia, global sports fans are set to pay keen attention to the region this year.

Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na, 21, is attracting the most interest amid expectations that she will break world records in Tokyo. She reached the 220-point range (228.56) in women’s single in a world first at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February last year.

Many say her record Olympic score will not be broken over Kim`s lifetime.

The world’s fastest runners will turn up at the World Championships in Athletics, which will heat up Korea`s third-largest city this summer.

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt set the world record in the men’s 100 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (9.69 seconds) and did it again at the 2009 Berlin World Championships in Athletics (9.58), breaking previous notions of human limitations.

Bolt finished his season early in August last year and has since been gearing up for this year’s world championships.

Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic champion in the women’s pole vault, will also seek to break her own world record (5.05 meters) in Daegu.

hanwshin@donga.com