‘Smile Jumper’ Woo Sang-hyuk (27-Yongin City Hall) set the world’s best mark this season in front of his home fans.

Woo cleared 2.33 meters 메이저사이트 to win the men’s high jump final at the National Athletics Championships on Friday at Jeongseon Stadium in Gangwon Province. He joins Joel Beiden (AUS), Jervon Harrison (USA), and Ilya Ivanuk (RUS) as the fourth athletes to clear 2.33 meters this season.

After clearing 2m20 in the first round and 2m25 in the second, Woo’s first jump of the day saw him fall on the uneven bars at 2m30. However, Woo cleared 2m30 in the third period and 2m33 in the first period. He then attempted 2m37 to break his own Korean record (2m36), but failed all three times.

“I will challenge for 2m37 again like today at the Stockholm Diamond League (next month on March 3),” Woo said. Kim Do-gyun, the high jump coach of the Korean National Athletics Team, sees 2m37 as an achievable goal, not a challenge. “I didn’t think it was a challenge,” Kim said of the 2m37. “I didn’t think it was a challenge,” he says of the 2.37 meters. “It’s all psychological,” he says. If you look at the margin (height) when you go over 2m33, you can go over 2m37, but when you try to go over 2m37, you can’t get that height,” he analyzed.

Since finishing the Florence Diamond League (second place) on March 3, Woo has been focusing on finding the optimal closing speed for his vault to convert the most centrifugal force from running toward the bar into jumping force. “My optimal speed, 메이저사이트 주소 which used to be once or twice in 10, is now more than half the time,” Woo said, “and I will continue to make various attempts to win the most important World Championships, Asian Games, and Olympic gold medals.”

Woo will go for gold at the World Championships in Budapest in August and the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.