Kyonggi-do achieves fifth consecutive victory in National Games

¡°See you in Chungchongnam-do in 2001.¡±

The 81st National Sports Meet, the first of the new millennium, closed after a hectic seven-day competition in a gala ceremony at Kudok Stadium in Pusan Wednesday.

Some 23,000 athletes and officials who contested for the glory of their hometowns and teams parted, promising to meet again in the next games to be held in nine cities and counties such as Kongju and Chonan, Chungchongnam-do, next year.

Kyonggi-do, which showed its prowess in ball sports and archery, finished first for the fifth year in a row in overall points since it took the championship in the 1996 Games in Kangwon-do, followed by Seoul, runner-up for five straight years. Host Pusan took third place, its best performance since it finished third in the 1987 Kwangju Games.

The Korea Sports Journalists¡¯ Association voted to select as the Games MVP the weightlifting team of Sunchang High Schoola, Chollapuk-do, which swept 14 of the total 15 gold medals for the five categories of women¡¯s high school weightlifting. It was the first time that a team was honored as the MVP since the award was introduced in the 1980 Games in Chollapuk-do.

The National Games produced 39 Korean records, but 26 of them were established in roller skating events, proving the performances were very poor with only one record in swimming and none in the track and field.

In swimming, Lee Eun-Hye of Seoul High School of Physical Education took the largest five gold medals by winning the women¡¯s 200m freestyles and 400m mixed medley in the last day of competition Wednesday.