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OLYMPICS

Alpensia Sliding Centre gets a new name

The sliding sports venue for next year’s Winter Games in Korea has been renamed to include the word “Olympic,” the event’s organizers said Tuesday.

The organizing committee for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics said the Alpensia Sliding Centre in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of Seoul, will now be called the Olympic Sliding Centre.

The sliding center is part of what used to be called Alpensia Sports Park, which will now be dubbed Alpensia Olympic Park.

The organizers said there are now five facilities with names that include the word “Olympic.” They said the former Alpensia Sports Park was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a symbolic winter sports landmark in the region, as it also includes venues for ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon.

The sliding track was allowed to use the “Olympic” tag because it is the only Korean sliding facility that meets the international standards.



MARATHON

Suh Yun-bok, 1947 Boston marathon winner, dies at 94

Suh Yun-bok, who won the 1947 Boston Marathon with a world-record time, passed away on Tuesday. He was 94 years old.

The Korea Association of Athletics Federations (KAAF) said Suh died of natural causes at around 4:40 a.m. Suh became the first Asian champion of the Boston Marathon in 1947, setting the then-world record with 2:25.39. It was also the first world record set at the Boston Marathon, which began in 1897.

Suh also participated in the 1948 London Olympics, and retired the following year. He spent the next four decades as a sports administrator in Korea, serving as an executive director and then vice president for the KAAF, and also as vice chairman for the Korean Olympic Committee.

When Suh won the Boston Marathon, he was being coached by Sohn Kee-chung, the 1936 Berlin Olympics champion and another iconic Korean athlete. Suh’s trip to the United States was financed by the American troops serving in Korea at the time, and he flew on a U.S. military plane.

For his accomplishments and contributions to Korean sports, Suh was recognized as a National Sports Hero by the national Olympic body in 2013.



TRACK AND FIELD

Kim Kuk-young sets 100m national record

Korean sprinter Kim Kuk-young set the men’s 100m national record with 10.07 seconds on Tuesday.

Kim won the men’s 100m final at the Korea Open International Athletics Competition in Jeongseon, some 210 kilometers east of Seoul, with a record-breaking time.

Kim broke his own record twice in three days on the same track. On Sunday, Kim ran the 100m in the semifinals of a different competition in the then-record time of 10.13 seconds. Later in the final, Kim posted a wind-aided, unofficial time of 10.07.

It was not recognized as an official record because a tailwind was blowing at 3.6 m/s. The maximum legal tailwind is 2.0 m/s. This year’s world championships will be held in London starting on Aug. 4.

Yonhap
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