The 83rd National Athletics Festival Starts Today for 7 Days

‘Growing Dreams, Powerful Spirit, From Halla to the World.’

The 83rd National Athletics Festival is held in Jeju for 7 days from the 9th to the 15th. This festival, in which people compete for 845 gold medals in 40 events including 38 official events such as field and track, football, basketball, and volleyball and 2 exhibition events (softball, triathlon), is in the biggest scale in the history with 22,176 participants (5,033 officials and 17,143 athletes) from 16 cities and provinces and overseas.

It is predicted that the defending champion Chungcheongnam-Do, Gyeongi-Do, which had 5 consecutive championships from 1996 to 2000, and Seoul, which has an excellent athlete delegation will compete for the championship.

The host, Jeju-Do is aiming to escape from the very bottom with more than 100 medals by sending some 800 athletes in 29 events.

On this Athletic Festival, many of the Busan Asian Games stars will participate. Kim Min-seok (Busan), Gold Medallist of the Men`s Swimming 50m Freestyle, Yoo Sung-min (Daegu), winner of the Table Tennis Men`s Double, Bae Eun-hye (Gyonggi-Do), Silver Medallist of the Women`s Judo 70kg division, and Na Gyong-min (Seoul), double Gold Medallist of the Badminton Women`s Double and Mixed Double are participating. The Kim Hyung-joo and Lee Eun-hui couple, who won Gold Medals in Judo after getting engaged, participates representing Chonbuk and Seoul respectably.

The old stars are also appearing in this Festival. Cho In-chul (Instructor, Yongin University), who retired after winning the Gold Medal in the World Judo Championship 89kg division last July, represents Choongbuk, and the ‘ill luck star’ Yoon Dong-sik (Coach of the Korean Horse Affairs Association), who retired without winning the Gold Medal in the Olympics nor the World Championships due to injury although he recorded 40 consecutive wins in international competition in 78kg division, represents Ulsan.

In this event, the Torch was taken from the other spiritual mountain of the nation, Halla Mountain breaking the tradition to take the Torch from the Mani Mountain in Gangwha Island. It is known that Gang Min-gyeong, who is from Jeju and won the Silver Medal in the Busan Asian Games Diving, will be the final carrier of the Torch.

In the meantime, although the Igniter of the Flame was not revealed for dramatic presentation, it is known that children from overseas and Korea will ignite the Flame to commemorate the first year of the International Free City.

Jeju-Do, which aims to jump into a world-class tourists` destination, plans to make it famous with the beautiful and dynamic images of Jeju City, which has been designated as an International Free City, and Jeju-Do.

What is more, many cultural events that can show characteristics of Jeju will be held during the Festival, so it even raised the heat of the Festival.

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com