Sport Briefs

OLYMPICS

Olympic committee unveils new PyeongChang posters

Korean organizers for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games on Tuesday unveiled the official promotional posters for the Olympics and Paralympics.

The organizers introduced three posters each for the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games next year. They added that the posters for Korea’s first ever Winter Games will be distributed to 2,000 government organizations, schools, train stations and sports facilities nationwide.

The organizers said they are working on art posters for the Olympics and the Paralympics along with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Craft & Design Foundation. The selected art posters will be announced later this month, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul will host an exhibition of the posters in November.

Meanwhile, with the Olympic Games just 150 days away, the organizers also unveiled a promotional video earlier in the day, featuring Korean President Moon Jae-in and former figure skater Kim Yuna, both honorary ambassadors for the multi-sport event.

TAEKWONDO

Taekwondo makes people fonder of Korea: study

Foreigners have become fonder of Korea after learning the Korean martial art taekwondo, a local poll showed Tuesday.

According to the survey by the World Taekwondo Peace Corps Foundation, 11.7 percent of 1,750 foreign nationals learning the sport said their positive feelings toward Korea have increased.

The survey was conducted on foreigners from 19 countries learning the martial art, including Russia, Fiji, Cambodia, Sweden, Bangladesh and Tanzania.

Nearly half of the respondents also said they have “very good” feelings towards Korea in general, with 95 percent of them saying they would like to visit the country someday.

GOLF

Hyundai Motor pulls out as sponsor for CLPGA Open

Korean automaker Hyundai Motor will not sponsor a Chinese golf event this year, officials in Seoul said Tuesday, amid an escalating diplomatic row over the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in Korea.

An official with Hyundai said that the automaker’s Chinese unit Beijing Hyundai Motor - a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and BAIC Motor established in 2002 - will not be the title sponsor for the Chinese Ladies Open on the China LPGA Tour.

The biggest event from the China Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (CLPGA) has been called the Hyundai China Ladies Open since 2010 after the automaker signed a sponsorship deal. The event, co-sanctioned by the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) since 2006, has been held in December.

The national championship of China has been also one of the popular tournaments for Koreans. The event’s previous winners include current world No. 1 Ryu So-yeon, 11-time LPGA Tour winner Shin Ji-yai and the reigning U.S. Women’s Open champion Park Sung-hyun. Three-time LPGA Tour winner Kim Hyo-joo won the Hyundai China Ladies Open in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Hyundai said it will pull out from the Chinese event because its title sponsorship deal has expired, emphasizing it has nothing to do with issues surrounding the Thaad missile defense system. But the local golf community suspects that the automaker’s decision is related to the situations in China.

“[Hyundai] didn’t tell us why it’s not going to sponsor the event,” an official with the KLPGA said. “We just think Hyundai’s declining sales in China have something to do with this problem.”

In the January-July period, Hyundai sold 351,292 vehicles in China, down 41 percent from 592,785 units a year earlier. Some industry observers claimed the slump came as Chinese consumers opted to buy fewer Korean vehicles in protest against Thaad, which they see as running counter to their security interests.

Yonhap