‘Smile Jumper’ Woo Sang-hyeok (27, Yongin City Hall) obtained a ticket to the finals of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships with a single jump.
Woo Sang-hyeok tied for first place with 2m14 in the men’s high jump preliminary round at the 10th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships held in Astana, Kazakhstan on the 11th.
Eighteen people participated in the preliminary round, and the race started from 1m90.
However, Woo Sang-hyeok ‘passed’ all 1m90, 2m00, 2m05, and 2m10.
While Woo Sang-hyeok was warming up, 7 people were already eliminated.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who started the 2m14 first period, shouted “Let’s go” and crossed the bar with light movements.
The audience burst into exclamation at Woo Sang-hyeok’s overwhelming performance over the bar at a considerable distance.
It means that even in the eyes of the spectators, the difference between Woo Sang-hyeok and other players was clearly revealed.
Of the 11 contestants who challenged the 2m14, the preliminary round ended when Igore Kosorapov (Kazakhstan) and Wu Guobiao (China) exhausted their first to third periods.
Nine people taller than 2m14, including Woo Sang-hyuk, advanced to the finals.
Woo Sang-hyeok Woo and Seko Yuto (Japan) are the only two players who advanced to the finals with just one jump. Among the contestants, Mazdi Ghazal (Syria), who was the least able to keep Woo Sang-hyeok in check, surpassed both 2m10 and 2m14 in the first round.
The men’s high jump final will be held on the 12th at 8:30 p.m.
Woo Sang-hyeok is a world-class jumper who forms a ‘two-team structure’ with Mutaz Esa Barsim (Qatar).
Barshim did not participate in this tournament.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who has built a splendid career of 4th at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (2m35), won the 2022 Belgrade World Indoor Championships (2m34), and 2nd place at the Eugene Outdoor World Championships in 2022 (2m35), has no rivals in Asian competitions where Barsim is absent.
Woo Sang-hyeok’s personal record is 2m36 indoors and 2m35 outdoors.
Ghazal’s personal best is 2m36 outdoors and 2m28 indoors, but he has never exceeded 2m30 since 2020.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who finished the preliminaries before his body even warmed up, can claim the gold medal if he overcomes the burden of his first tournament of the season.
Until now, Korean athletics has only sent a small number of athletes to the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. 카지노
Prior to this event, Korea’s only medalist at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships was Choi Yoon-hee, who jumped 4m30 to run second in the women’s pole vault at the 2012 Hangzhou Games in China.
On the 10th, the first day of the 10th Games, Ryu Gyu-min in the men’s triple jump won the bronze medal, becoming the second Korean medalist ever.
On the 12th, Woo Sang-hyeok, who has written ‘first records’ several times in the history of Korean track and field, will leap forward with the goal of becoming ‘the first Korean athlete to win a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Championships’.