Lee Bong-joo to Run in Seoul Marathon Before Leaving for Athens

“Popular marathon runner” Lee Bong-joo (34, Samsung Electronics) will participate in the 2004 Seoul International Marathon competition and the 75th Dong-A Marathon competition.

The business office for Dong-A Marathon stated, “Lee decided to run in the Seoul International Marathon held at March 14 as preparation for the 2004 Athens Olympics.” With this, Lee takes part in his first domestic marathon competition in seven years since 1997, with the exception of the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

Lee spoke of his aspiration, “I wanted to run in the most authoritative race in Korea since I have not appeared in a domestic competition for so long. I will break my Korea record (2 hours 7 minutes and 20 seconds) in this competition and go for the winning laurels at the Athens Olympics.”

The Dong-A marathon is like his mental home. He first raced in 1991 finishing in 15th place, 12th place in 1993, and finally won in 1995 to become a marathon star. Being in second place with 2 hours, 8 minutes and 26 seconds in 1996’s competition, he captured a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics in the same year.

In the Seoul International Marathon, top runners around the world participate. They are William Kipsang (26, Kenya) who is the champion of 2003 Amsterdam Marathon and was ranked 7th (2 hours 6 minutes and 39 seconds) last year, Gert Thys (31, Republic of South Africa, 2 hours 6 minutes 33 seconds) who is the defending champion, and young power of Tanzania, Samson Ramadani (21, 2 hours 8 minutes 1 second). Lee is preparing to finish in 2 hours and 6 minutes through strong competition with these excellent athletes.

This is Lee’s 32nd challenge for a full course. He completed the entire distance 30 times over 14 years since joining the National Sports Festival in 1990, achieving great results such as the champion of 1996 Fukuoka Marathon and 2001 Boston Marathon, and his second consecutive wins in Asian Games (1998, 2002). He gave up on a course only at the 2001 Edmonton World Championship in Athletics.

Lee went to Kyoungnam Goseong and started to train to develop his endurance and speed right after participating in the Asahi relay race of Japan and returned on January 13. Lee is scheduled to do intensive high altitude training in Kunming, China for three weeks next month.

He looks comfortable and is always sincere… Lee’s participation already makes Seoul International Marathon hot.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com