Posted May. 02, 2007 03:39,
The two rising Korean race-walking stars, Park Chil-sung, 25, and Kim Hyun-seob, 22, broke the Korean 20 km race-walk record and raised the prospect of Korea achieving high rankings in the international arena.
At the mens 20km race walking of the 36th National Athletic Championships was held on Tuesday in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Park finished the race in 1:20:20, breaking the record that Shin Il-yong set at the Japan Race-Walking Championship in January 2004 by one minute and nine seconds. Kim also broke the Korean record, finishing the race in 1:20:54.
The world record is 1:17:21, set by Ecuadorian race-walking star Jefferson Pérez, and the Asian record is 1:17:41, set by Zhu Hongjun in 2005. However, as winners of World Championships and Olympics usually finish in around 1 hour 19 minutes, experts believe that if they can improve their records a little more, the two have a good chance of winning medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2011 Daegu World Athletic Championships.
Park and Kim have competed tirelessly in international events since 2004. He has cast away his fears after competing shoulder to shoulder with international stars. He has started to bear fruit, said Lee Min-ho, Kims coach.
Meanwhile, Kang Da-seul, the youngest member of the national team, won the middle school girls 200 meters with a time of 25:19. She also won the 100 meters on the previous day. Kangs record was faster than that of the female university students 200m which was 25:52.