Olympic Archer Park Sung-hyun Named MVP of Korean National Sports Festival

“We hope to see you again at the 2005 Ulsan games.”

The 85th (Korean) National Sports Festival ended its seven-day tournament with its closing ceremony at Cheongju Stadium in Choongbuk on October 14.

Approximately 24,000 athletes from 16 different cities, provinces, and even foreign countries joined hands together to dance the Ganggangsoollae (a traditional Korea dance where all participants hold hands and dance around in a circle) and participate in the Gilssamnollee (a traditional Korean event that encourages a sense of community and camaraderie by stitching fabric together) during the closing ceremony, promising to meet again next year in Ulsan.

In the swimming event that occurred just before the closing ceremony, Nam Yoo-sun (Seoul National University), Korea’s only Olympic swimming finalist, took first place in the women’s 400m medley relay event, winning her fourth gold medal of the games. Nam Yoo-sun won the gold in the 200m and 400m individual medleys, as well as the 800m freestyle relay.

Also, the Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance men’s volleyball team (Choongnam) won the gold in the men’s volleyball event.

During the tournament, a total of four world records, 29 Korean records, and 148 tournament records were set. Furthermore, the tournament, in terms of quality, was said to have improved after four Korean records were set in the women’s 5000m race, women’s pole vault, and women’s long jump.

Gyeonggi Province took home the composite championship title for the third time in a row and the 16th time overall.

Park Sung-hyun (21, Choongbuk Provincial Government) was selected as the tournament’s MVP after she set four (including unofficial) world records and won a total of five gold medals in the women’s archery event.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Park Sung-hyun won the gold in the women’s 50m, 60m, 70m archery events as well as the individual and team events. She broke the world record in the individual, team composite, 70m, and team events, and also tied the world record in the 60m event.

During an interview, Park Sung-hyun said, “I felt a lot of expectations around me during the tournament since it was held almost right after the Athens Olympics. But the extra attention only made me concentrate more on my game.”

Sung-Kyu Kim Won-Hong Lee kimsk@donga.com bluesky@donga.com