Nat¡¯l Sports Meet opens Oct. 12 in Busan

Fresh from the Sydney Olympics, the nation will hold its 81st National Sports Meet in Pusan on Oct. 12.

The Busan sports event is being held as a rehearsal for the 2002 Asian Games to be staged in the southern port city in two years.

The largest gathering of athletes ever staged in Korea will be host to 16,943 athletes and 4,944 officials as they take part in the annual sports festival. The participants from 16 metropolitan cities and provinces, as well as 12 Korean resident delegations from abroad, will compete in 38 official sports and two demonstration sports.

The National Sports Meet is being held in Busan for the first time in 24 years since the 1976 event. The sacred flame for the sports festival was lit atop Mount Geumgang in North Korea and Mount Mani in South Korea for the first time in a symbolic gesture for national harmony and unity.

The Busan National Sports Meet, in particular, will feature the participation by national players who competed in the Sydney Olympics. Most of them, except the injured, will compete for medals for the glory of their hometowns.

They include, among others, Kim Young-Ho, who won the nation¡¯s first gold medal in Olympic fencing, Yun Mi-Jin, who garnered two golds in archery, and Kang Cho-hyun, who won the silver in the women¡¯s air rifle competition.

The Olympic athletes, upon returning home early this week, joined their teams and have been training in preparation for the Busan meet, amid concerns over whether they can retain their top positions at home, as well.

kjs0123@donga.com