Colorful Daegu Pre-championships meeting 2011 - Behind story

Today, we would like to deliver behind stories of Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships meeting rather than talking about competition results.

Daegu Stadium box office was not same as usual and giveaway vehicle was displayed in front of stadium.

Moblie electronic board for displaying athletes’ name and records was installed inside of the stadium.

On the bleachers, university student PR team was busy for cheering preparation.

Their colorful picket rooting to the rhythm of PR team’s official song was actually very popular with athletes and spectators.

Seats were filled with group viewing soldiers, students and citizens.

Sapsalgae was also participated to celebrate the event by showing their cute charming to spectators.

Of course, the official mascot Sarbi was also busy for interviewing with athletes and participating awards ceremony.

Volunteers in blue uniform and hat worked very hard, especially looks of hurdle moving were very impressive.

While we wondered here and there in stadium, we encountered athletes at very close distance.

They are women long jumper Hyeyoung Jung and Chanmi Baek and Funmi Jimoh took photos with fans from the bleachers.

Co-president Bum-il Kim also made surprise visit in the seats and extended his hand to children.

Here is passage gate to the stadium, children with pencil and paper were hanging on the fence to get autograph of passing athletes. Actually, some of kind athletes gave their signature to children.

We expect we could meet again in August with better competition.

2011 Colorful Daegu Pre-Championship Meeting - The first athletics event in newly born Daegu Stadium

On last May 12, the first athletics event was held at the internationally certified Daegu Stadium where recently got face-lift with the blue Mondo track.

Although around three months were left until the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011, lots of participated world famous athletes had a good chance to check their body condition and adapt themselves to the stadium in advance. 

The first event on that day was women’s long jump, Korean athletes Chanmi-Bae and Hyekeong-Jung were participated in the competition.

The first place went to the American long jumper Funmi Jimoh with a record of 6m52cm.
The sliver medal winner Anna Nazarova also jumped 6m52cm but she had one more disqualification than the winner.The gold medal winner seemed enjoyed the event itself and induced spectators to applause during the event.

Pole vault was also in progress at the same time and it was the longest event of the day.
The winner of event was Silke Spiegelburg from Germany.

Silke Spiegelburg from Germany 

Top American sprinter Allyson Felix took the first place in men’s 200m event and Camelita Jeter won in women’s 100m and achieved three consecutive championship titles in Daegu Pre-Championship since 2009. After winning, she made a circuit of the track and greeted spectators personally.

The latest event of that day was men’s triple jump and Korean jumper Duck-hyun Kim won the gold medal by a narrow margin of 2 cm.

After all events finished, awards ceremony followed.

Women’s 200m awards ceremony : Winner Allyson Felix(middle), the second place Consuela Moore(left) and third place Aleksandra Fedoriva(right)

Men’s 110m hurdles awards ceremony :  Winner David Oliver(middle),  Aries Merritt(left), Dwight Thomas(left)

Men’s 100m awards ceremony : Walter Dix(middle), Mike rogers(left), Jaysuma Ndure(right)

Finally, Korean athlete Duck-hyun Kim stood on the winner’s podium and Daegu Stadium resonated with Korean national anthem.

Feather Light, Athletic Shoes

Runners depend on their shoes for success.  In order to make a good record, personalized shoes based on foot shape and running position are necessary.

For example, heavy shoes can really slow an athlete down. Athletes generally prefer light and resilient shoes.

When Usain Bolt set the world record of 100m in Beijing Olympic Games 2008, the weight of his odd shoe was 204g. In Berlin one year later his shoes weighed 149g.  With these shoes he set a record of 9.58 seconds in IAAF World Championships Berlin 2009.

Today athletic shoes can weigh less than 100g. These shoes are designed for sprints.

The winner of the men’s 200m and the 400m in 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Michael Johnson, had shoe that weighed only 99.2g.  On these shoes, the spikes were reduced in size. 

The weight of shoes might be a burden from some athletes. Some claim that energy consumption increases by 1 percent per ever 100 grams worth of shoe weight. In 1960 in the Rome Olympic Marathon, the winner Abebe ran barefoot.

Of course however, athletic shoes lessen the impact when the runner steps on the track.

Runners typically use a second insole to reduce the impact.  Shoes are also resized based on the shape of the athlete’s foot.

Stretching with Sarbi

Stretching with Sarbi

It’s good time to go out to see blooming flower and enjoy nice sunshine. But it’s also hard time for students and office workers at desk to overcome drowsiness.

So, today we would like to introduce stretching exercise to overcome spring fever.

First one is back stretching as below.

Stood upright and hands up with locking fingers.
And bend your body right and left for each 15 seconds.

Second is the shoulder stretching.

 

Leaving one arm behind your head and gently pull with the other arm.

Also maintain this position for 15 seconds.
The other arm, gently pull your arms behind your head passed.
Also hold for 15 seconds.
Do not forget to straighten your back.
Do the exactly same stretching on the opposite arm.

Let's start with leg stretching.

First, sit leaning against the backrest.
And keep body stick on the backrest then raise leg without bending.  
Maintain this posture 15 seconds.
Do same thing on the other leg.

Lastly, I will show you another different leg stretching pose.

Sitting on the chair, put one leg on the opposite leg.
And keep your upper body lean forward for 15 seconds.

These simple exercises will be enough to prevent spring fever.

Official theme song recording studio sketch

Here reveal scenes of official theme song recording with composer Myung Su, Shin and singers Insooni, Gak Huh.

The score of official theme song

The recording studio prepared for singers to help sing their song

The solo part of Insooni

Insooni sang the song passionately during the recording.

We could feel her charisma through the picture.

Insooni sang the song passionately during the recording.

We could feel her charisma through the picture.

Despite of concern about his tension, Mr. Huh recorded with comfortable state of mind.

Both recorded in perfect harmony.

If you want to see the making film of theme song, click here.

Road show in Gwangju

On last 20 April, Sarbi road show team visited the fifth city, Gwangju known as town of light.
We already have covered half of 10 cities to be scheduled to visit.

The promotion was held on outdoor stage of Gwangju City Hall.

Like other cities, PR hall was installed to look around and placed patio chair for citizens.

One side of the hall was filled with leaflets, event schedule and souvenirs for Championships 2011.

The ceremony began with energetic Modeumbuk (Korean drum) performance.
Disk-spinning show was performed for the first time in Gwangju.

The most people are gathered since the tour began.

Especially, the official Mascot Sarbi presented dance to the official theme song ‘Let’s go together.’ And sapsalgae showed lot of cute performances but failed to show the real ability due to the hot weather.

After opening ceremony, LOC co-president Hae Nyung Cho handed over official emblem and campaign flag to the Mayor of Gwangju, Un Tae Gang and President of City Council, Bong Geun, Yoon.

The Mayor was proud of the intimacy between Gwangju and Daegu and wished to keep good mutual
cooperation and Mr.Yoon prepared his address script by himself and addressed about the importance of the Championships and major issues.

Co-president, Cho extended his hand for thanks to both officials and emphasized the importance of the event again in his address.

Final event of the ceremony is cutting the tape with participated key personnel.

And finally, World Marathon Cups (Men and Women) was revealed after the cutting.

Mr.Cho explained about the Cups to Mayor and President of City council and had short look around of
exhibits like helmet of Gi Jueng Son and foot statue of marathoner Hwang.

Lastly, the Mayor left cheering message for Championships 2011 with all his heart.