Korean men’s high jump ‘Smile Jumper’ Woo Sang-hyeok aims to win the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships for the first time in Korean athletes’ history.
The 10th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from the 10th to the 12th. More than 500 athletes from 31 countries are expected to participate in the event.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who continued training in the United States and Europe since December last year, makes his first jump of the year at this event.
Kook-Young Kim, who holds the Korean men’s 100m record (10.07 in 10 seconds), who started overseas training with Woo Sang-hyeok, is also scheduled to participate in the 60m event.
In addition, Kim Gyeong-tae in the men’s 60m hurdles, Yu Kyu-min in the men’s triple jump, Kim Jang-woo (Jangheung-gun Office), Choi Dong-hui in the men’s heptathlon, Lee Su-jeong and Jeong Yoo-seon in the women’s shot put will also participate in the Kazakhstan Indoor Championships.
The Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, which were held every two years from 2004 to 2018, were canceled in 2020 in the aftermath of Corona 19, and the competition scheduled to be held in 2022 was postponed by one year to be held this year.
It is actually the ninth event, but the Asian안전놀이터 Athletics Federation sees the ninth event as a “cancelled” event, and names this Astana, Kazakhstan tournament as the “tenth event.”
Korea’s only medalist at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships is Choi Yun-hee, who jumped 4m30 and placed second in the women’s pole vault at the 2012 Hangzhou Games in China.
However, it is expected that there will be multiple medalists in this event with 8 players participating.
In particular, we can expect Woo Sang-hyeok’s medal in the men’s high jump. Woo Sang-hyeok won the first Korean gold medal over 2m34 at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in March last year.
Mutaz Esa Barsim (Qatar), the best active jumper, has won the Asian Indoor Championship men’s high jump five times in a row from the 2010 Iran Tehran Games to the 2018 Tehran Games. Barsim also holds the highest record of 2m38, but is not expected to participate in this event.
Woo Sang-hyeok’s victory became even more likely due to his biggest rival’s absence from the tournament.