The 10.34s Record for 100m Dash Will Be Broken This Year

“I will surely overcome the 10.34s barrier by the end of this year.”

Jeon Deok-hyoung (age 21, Chungnam National University) is the “hope of short distance athletic sports in Korea.” Having left for Japan last October to receive athletic training under Chiaki Miyakawa (age 58), a Tokai University professor who is known as the “godfather of Japanese sprints,” Jeon came back to Korea for a short New Year break.

A famous trainer who has mentored Asian record (10.00s) holder Ito Koji (age 35) and promising Japanese short distance athlete Shingo Suetsugu (age 25, Tokai University graduate school, 10.03s), professor Miyakawa picked Jeon out as the athlete to break the existing Korean record (10.34s) in the 100m dash. This record, held by Seo Mal-goo since the 1979 Mexican Universiade, has not been broken for 26 years.

Jeon, who visited the Korea Athletes Federation (KAF) on January 7, said, “The training is difficult, but I am now confident. I think I may be able to break Seo Mal-goo’s record this year.”

Jeon said he completely changed his running posture as soon as he went to Japan. Until recently, his running form had been the lifting kind, which dispersed the body’s power, but after switching to a pushing form he achieved more efficiency. He trains for three hours a day, training hard enough to have lost two kilograms so far.

Jeon’s record is 10.62s for 100m and 21.24s for 200m (the Korean record is 20.41s).

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com