Twenty-five Year Old 100 Meter Record Will Be Broken

The Korea record is still 10.34 seconds which Seo Mal-goo set in Mexico Universiad, 1979. It has not been lowered by even 0.01 second in 25 years. The Japanese coach and Korean athletes will challenge to overcome “the shameful history.”

The Korea Amateur Athletic Federation employed “Godfather of Japan Sprint” and a gymnastics professor of Tokai University, Miyakawa Chiaki (57-years-old), as a coach of the national reserve team last December. Miyakawa, the former Japanese national coach, has taught young sprinters (three men, five women) in Korea and Japan, and the facts have been kept secretly. Domestic public opinion was considered for it.

Professor Miyakawa has coached Ashara Nobuharu (32-year-old, 10.02) and “New star of Japanese sprinting,” Suetzku Shingo (24-years-old, 10.03) as well as a record holder of Asia men’s 100m, Ito Koji (34-years-old), boosting Japan sprinters up to the world’s top class. He has been a national runner himself and holds a record of 10.30 seconds.

Coaching the Korea national reserve team three times a month until last February, Miyakawa assured, “Korean athletes are in good shape. It’s only a matter of time until they set a new Korean record.” A professor of Chungnam University (gymnastics), Lee Jeong-heun, stated, “I heard that a new record would be possible by this year from Professor Miyakawa.”

Miyakawa’s first task was to change the running form of the athletes. The problem was that they lifted their knees too high despite having less power than western sprinters. He created a running form which suited Asian sprinters, and as a result his runners set the Asia record. His pupil, Suetzku, holds the Asia men’s 200m record at 20.03 seconds)

Miyakawa will conduct his fourth training camp in Daejun from March 18 to March 30, and it is expected that he will coach the Koreans a total of eight times until June. The new incoming sprinter who is expected to set a new record is Jeon Deok-hyoung (29-year-old, a freshman of Chungnam University), and his personal record is 10.62 seconds which was recorded at the 2001’s National Sports Festival. He is 184cm tall and 75kg, the best figure as a sprinter, and in particular it is generally considered that he is very flexible unlike many Asians. Miyakawa’s plan is to let Jeon study at Tokai University this October and foster him into a big sprinter.

Professor Miyakawa had a doctorial degree with a thesis of “Sprinting Principle and Technique (Resistance Training for a Sprint),” and has been studying about periodicity of training system as a methodology of sprint training.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com