Baemoon Men, Incheon Women Finish First In National Marathon Competition

Baemoon High School captured the championship in the men’s category of the national marathon competition in its third straight first-place finish in the event’s third year.

Baemoon, recognized as a school with a strong reputation in the marathon, cut a minute and six seconds from the previous record of 2 hours 14 minutes and 42 seconds to 2 hours 13 minutes and 36 seconds in the 3rd national marathon competition (sponsored by Chungchung province, the city of Gong-ju, the Korea Athletes Federation and Dong-a Ilbo) which divided the 42.195 km course into six sub-sections.

In the men`s race, 18 teams competed in a slugfest. Chungbuk Physical High School took 2nd place with a finish time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 30 seconds, and 3rd place went to Kyunggi Physical High School with a finish time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 50 seconds.

Baemoon trailed Kyunggi in the first section of the race (7km) by a second to stay in 2nd place, but in the 2nd section (8.1km), Jeon Eun-hye went ahead and took the lead, extended it to 11 seconds and never giving up the lead position from that moment onwards. Baemoon also won the Kolon High School marathon competition on the 27th of last month, which took place in Gyeongju.

Coach Jo Nam-hong of Baemoon commented, "I guess the regular conversations made with the runners to inspire them to work out turned out well," and added, "I would like to raise runners who focus on basic skills such as Hwang Young-jo and Lee Bong-joo.”

A total of 10 teams competed in the women`s division. The race`s first-time winner, Incheon Physical Education High School, showed its heels to Seoul Physical Education High School (2 hours 39 minutes) with a finish time of 2 hours 37 minutes and 30 seconds. Suhmoon Girl`s High School ended the meet in third place with a finish time of 2 hours 40 minutes and 38 seconds.

Incheon Physical Education High School took the lead in the 1st section (7km), gave away the lead to Seoul Physical Education High School in the 2nd and 3rd section, but retook the leading position in the 4th section (6.15km) and maintained its lead to the finish line. Incheon Physical Education High School`s coach Bae Jae-ryong said, "I thought the match’s decision point was going to be the 4th section, but Jin Hyo-kyung did well in the 1st section too, so we ran the race conveniently."

In the opening ceremony, Lim Hyung-Jae, Chungnam’s state affairs deputy governor, Oh Young-hee, mayor of Gongju, Lee Gyang-jin, Korea Athletes Federation vice president, and Kim Hak-joon, president of Dong-A Ilbo participated and cheered for the runners.

Baemoon coach Ji Choon-keun and Incheon Physical Education High School coach Kim Young-shik received coaching awards in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively. The winning teams from both divisions took the prize money of 10 million won each.

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com