The pride of Korea in athletics and the world’s No. 1 jumper Woo Sang-hyeok (27, Yongin City Hall) has risen to the top of the Asian Athletics Championships in six years.
Woo Sang-hyeok participated in the men’s high jump at the ‘2023 Asian Athletics Championships’ held at Suphachalasai Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on the 15th at 8:20 pm (hereinafter referred to as Korean time) and won the championship with 2m28.
With this, Woo Sang-hyeok won the 2017 Bhubaneswar Games in India with a 2m30, and then regained the top spot in six years.
Woo Sang-hyeok won a total of two gold medals in four competitions, including Wuhan in 2015 (10th place, 2m10), Bhubaneswar in 2017 (1st place, 2m30), and Doha in 2019 (7th place, 2m19).
On this day, Woo Sang-hyeok was the 7th out of a total of 9 players to jump, while Mutaz Barshim (Qatar), a ‘strong rival’ who holds the Asian record (2m43) and the tournament record (2m35), was absent.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who skipped 2m10, started with 2m15, then succeeded in 2m19 and 2m23 in succession. After crossing the 2m23 height, Woo Sang-hyeok showed his composure by drawing a V with his hand towards the relay camera with his unique bright smile.
Woo Sang-hyeok, who passed 2m26 and 2m28 in the first round without a single failure, challenged this season’s highest record tie-in of 2m33.
Woo Sang-hyeok missed the bar in the first and second jumps, and could not even cross the last jump, finishing with 2m28.
Woo Sang-hyeok dispelled concerns about sluggish performance with this gold medal.
Woo Sang-hyeok challenged three times in the 2m16 at the 2023 World Athletics Federation (WA) Stockholm Diamond League, where he competed just before the Asian Championships, but was unable to exceed it and finished the game without a record, raising concerns.
Previously, Woo Sang-hyeok started the season with a silver medal (2m24) at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships held in Kazakhstan in February of this year.
After passing through the World Athletics Federation (WA) Doha Diamond League (2nd place, 2m27) in May, he participated in the 51st KBS Cup National Track and Field Championships (2m33), which also served as the national selection match for the Hangzhou Asian Games, which will open in China in September. .
He then competed at the Yokohama Golden Grand Prix in Japan, where he won his first international event of the season with a 2m29.
In June, he competed in the Rome-Florence Diamond League (2nd place, 2m30) and participated in the National Track and Field Championships held in Jeongseon, Gangwon-do안전놀이터, and tied for first place in the world record this season with 2m33.
At the time, Woo Sang-hyeok said, “It feels good to win the world leader for the first time in a while. I definitely knew what I need to improve on.”
Currently, Joel Baden (27, Australia), Jubon Harrison (24, USA), and Ilya Ivanyuk (30, Russia) form the lead.
In the world point rankings, Woo Sang-hyeok remains in first place with 1376 points. Second place is followed by Barsim (1365 points).
Woo Sang-hyeok, who reached the top at the Asian Championships in six years, temporarily returns to Korea and prepares for the first ever gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest, Hungary in August and the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.
In July of last year, he jumped 2m35 at the Oregon World Championships in the U.S. and won the silver medal for the first time as a Korean athlete. He participated in the Asian Games twice, Incheon in 2014 (10th place, 2m20) and Jakarta-Palembang (2nd place, 2m28) in 2018. but did not win the gold medal.
Woo Sang-hyeok jumped 2m35 at the Tokyo Olympics, breaking the Korean record held by Lee Jin-taek (2m34) at the time in 24 years, drawing great attention.
Meanwhile, by the 4th day of the tournament, Korea was able to get out of the ‘no gold medal’ crisis by harvesting one gold medal and two bronze medals.
On the 12th, he won the bronze medal in the men’s 400m relay (Lee Simon, Park Won-jin, Ko Seung-hwan, Shin Min-gyu) for the first time in 38 years, and on the 13th, Kim Jang-woo (Jangheung-gun Office), who competed in the men’s triple jump, won the bronze medal after 8 years.