[목포=신홍관 기자] Mokpo City, South Jeolla Province, has grown into a prestigious sports city by successfully hosting national sports competitions for two consecutive years.
Following last year’s National Sports Festival and National Sports Festival for the Disabled, Mokpo City successfully held this year’s National Boys Sports Festival and National Sports Festival for Disabled Students. During preparation for the competition, Mokpo Sports Complex, a certified first-class track and field stadium, and Bandabi Sports Center, a cradle for sports activities for the disabled, were built, and sports infrastructure was also expanded, including the redevelopment of the Mokpo Indoor Gymnasium, swimming pool, and Mokpo International Soccer Center.
With the foundation for hosting national competitions laid in this way, the 53rd National Athletics Championships and the 2024 Asian Athletics Throwing Championships were successfully held this year, promoting the reputation of a luxury sports city throughout the country.
◇National (Disabled) Sports Festival and National Boys (Disabled Students) Sports Festival were successful.
For two years, the city worked hard to successfully host a large-scale national event.
By collaborating with various organizations and institutions such as Mokpo Police Station, Mokpo Fire Department, Mokpo Office of Education, Mokpo City Sports Association, and Mokpo City Sports Association for the Disabled, we are able to thoroughly address all areas including transportation, parking, lodging, and restaurant management, emergency medical measures, game operations, and safety support. I prepared without it.
As a result, the National (Disabled) Sports Festival, which was held as the main host city in Mokpo for the first time since the opening of the port, and the National Boys (Disabled Students) Sports Festival, a major festival for Korea’s sports dreamers, were successfully held on the largest scale in history for two consecutive years.
Various cultural and artistic events and festivals were held during the festival period, which brought great vitality to the local economy, with lodging establishments being fully booked every day and restaurants also being busy.
Citizens also participated actively and voluntarily with a mature civic consciousness, which became the foundation for taking a leap forward as an advanced sports city.
◇Attracting international and national level competitions, becoming the best sports mecca in the country
This year, the 53rd National Athletics Championships, a prestigious competition in track and field, was held. Over 5 days, over 1,500 athletes in a total of 170 sports competed passionately, setting new competition records.
In addition, the 2024 Asian Athletics Throwing Championships, which was recognized as an international competition last year and is now in its second year, saw over 200 athletes from 20 countries participate over two days.
The 2024 Korea Open Badminton Championships are being prepared for six days starting August 27, and the city is accelerating its efforts to welcome the world’s top badminton players.
Next year, the National Sports Festival will be held to mark the finale of the three-year sports festival that continues from the National Sports Festival. The city plans to successfully complete this competition and prove once again that it is a premium sports city in name and reality.
◇Fostering workplace sports teams with outstanding skills such as soccer and hockey
The Mokpo Workplace Sports Department is raising the status of Mokpo as a sports city by consistently ranking high in national competitions.
FC Mokpo finished second in the K3 League last year and won a bronze medal at the 104th National Sports Festival. The hockey team also won a silver medal at the 104th National Sports Festival. Park Seo-jin of the track and field team won a gold medal in the women’s hammer throw, achieving her fifth consecutive championship, and women’s shot put player Jeong So-eun won a bronze medal.
The city plans to revise the ordinance, which includes provisions for recruiting top players and multi-year contracts, to provide full support so that workplace sports departments can achieve good results by focusing only on training.
◇ Southwestern Jeollanam-do region is in the spotlight as the best training location
Mokpo City is enjoying the special privilege of hosting national sports competitions. Since the end of last year, the number of athletes visiting Mokpo for training has reached approximately 20,000, breaking the previous year’s record, and the city is on track to attract 30,000 athletes this year.
Game scene at the National Athletics Championships. [사진=목포시]
The city attributed this to the improvement in sports facility conditions and a rapid increase in the number of training teams visiting Mokpo to prepare for the competition, and stated that their stay led to local consumption, giving a great boost to the local economy.
The city provides various incentive benefits to visiting training teams, such as discounts on public sports facility usage fees and support for cultural and tourism experience activities, and is preparing various support measures to encourage more teams to visit Mokpo.
In addition, the city is actively engaging in competitions and training camps for visiting sportspeople from all over the country, and last month it signed a business agreement with the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, which will allow youth from both cities and provinces to participate in sports, culture, education, experiential tourism, etc. We plan to strengthen exchange and cooperation in general.
Mokpo Mayor Park Hong-ryul said, “The sports competitions held so far have been successfully concluded with athletes breaking new records every day thanks to advanced civic awareness and well-equipped sports facilities.” He added, “We will utilize the expanded sports infrastructure to hold national competitions, various sports events, “We will work hard to attract athletes to field training and move forward as the best sports mecca in the country,” he said. /[email protected]
2024-06-26 17:19:03
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