National Sports Festival Grand Opening

`Go forward to the National Sports Festival for the glory of hometown….`

The world-class national team sports stars will participate in the 82nd National Sports Festival to be held in Chunnam Province from 10th. They are supposed to enter into the medal race for the honor of hometown.

In the women`s archery, there will be a world-class competition. First of all, last month`s World Championship title winner, Park Sung-Hyun participates as a representative of the Chonbuk Province. This sports festival will for sure be a fierce contest among the outstanding players who have won the World Championships and the Olympics, such as World Championship silver medallist and double crown winner of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Kim Kyung-Wook (Ulsan), the gold medallist of the 1988 Seoul Olympics Kim Soo-Nyung (Kyungbuk), two gold medallist of the 2000 Sydney Olympics Yoon Mi-Jin (Kyonggi).

In men`s archery, double crown winner of the World Championship Yeon Jung-Ki will draw the bowstring for his hometown Kyungnam Province. And Jang Yong-Ho (Kyungbuk) and Kim Cheong-Tae (Ulsan), who were disqualified from the national team due to the `training rejection affairs`, will stand side by side in the shooting line.

For the shooting, Sydney Olympics Cinderella Kang Cho-Hyun (Daejeon) will contest with her rival Choi Dae-Young (Kyungnam) in women`s air rifle. The first Korean Olympic fencing gold medallist Kim Young-Ho (Daejeon) will attempt at a double crown in the personal and group contests of Foil, which were firstly adopted in the National Sports Festival.

In wrestling, Kim In-Seop (Kyungbuk) and Sohn (Chonbuk), come to participate in 69 kg class and 76 kg class of the Greco-Roman style respectively, as the World Championship was postponed due to the terrorist attacks on the U.S..

Korea Open men`s single title holder Kim Taik-Soo is supposed to show his dominating ability in Chonbuk uniform.

`Hercules of Asia` Kim Tae-Hyun (Jeonnam), who has never missed the National Sports Festival since his high school days in 1987, will challenge the 14th consecutive victory in 105 kg or more class.

Meanwhile, this year`s Boston Marathon winner Lee Bong-Ju will meet his hometown fans runing as a final flame-bearer of the sacred-torch relay instead of participating in the marathon. Lee was born in Sunggeo-Up, Chonan City, in which this festival will be held.

Kim Sang-Ho hyangsan@donga.com