High jumper Woo takes gold at National Championships

Woo Sang-hyeok clears the bar at 2.30 meters on his second attempt at the National Athletics Championships at Daegu Stadium in Daegu on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

High jumper Woo Sang-hyeok won the men's final at the National Athletics Championships in Daegu on Tuesday, securing his ticket to the 2022 Asian Games.

Woo, who set a new Korean record and finished fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, successfully cleared 2.30 meters at Daegu Stadium on Tuesday, beating second-place Yun Seung-hyun, who cleared 2.20 meters, but failed all three attempts at 2.30 meters.

Woo is a two-time Olympian, having represented Korea at the 2016 Rio Games and 2020 Tokyo Games. In 2016, Woo only managed to clear the bar at 2.26 meters, failing to reach the final. At the 2020 Games, Woo cleared 2.28 meters during the preliminaries and 2.35 in the final, beating the Korean record of 2.34 meters set by Lee Jin-taek in 1997.

Yun also represented Korea in Rio.

On Tuesday, 2.30 meters was good enough to earn Woo first place and a ticket to the Asian Games. He attempted to clear 2.34, but failed to make the jump.

The National Athletics Championships marked Woo's first time competing on Korean soil since the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Since then, Woo has been competing on the international circuit, winning gold at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in March this year. He was the first Korean ever to win gold at the world championships.

Woo will be back in action before the Asian Games, as he heads to the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]