Training alone without a leader… No results and habitual drinking
A promising player in 2 hours and 5 minutes… getting smaller
Athletics Federation, affiliated team Cheongyang County Office “I don’t know”
Kenyan naturalized marathon runner Oh Joo-han (34, Cheongyang-gun Office, Kenya Myung, Wilson Royanae Erupe) withdrew during the race at the 18th World Athletics Championships (Eugene, USA) held on the 18th (Korean time) following the Tokyo Olympics last year. It can be said that this is a case that clearly showed the results of neglecting a promising player. The Korea Athletics Federation or Cheongyang County Office, which is supposed to manage the national track and field athletes, left them to train alone in Kenya without a coach or coach, and Oh Joo-han made no effort to improve his performance, but rather drank on his own. It is evaluated that it fell into the swamp of 凋落).
After the death of his teacher Oh Chang-seok in May of last year,
Oh Joo-han withdrew during the 2022 International Athletics Federations World Championships marathon race.
Oh Joo-han, who joined the track and field team of the Cheongyang-gun Office in 2015 and became a naturalized Korean in September 2018, holds the record for 2 hours, 5 minutes and 13 seconds. He started breaking down in May of last year. Since the death of Professor Oh Chang-seok (59 years old at the time) Baek Seok University, who discovered himself in 2011 and raised him as a national player following naturalization in Korea, died of a disease suspected of endemic to Africa. After Oh Joo-han was selected as the national team for the Tokyo Olympic Games in the Gyeongju Marathon in October 2019 at 2 hours 8 minutes 21 seconds, Oh set up a camp in Kaptagat, Kenya, at an altitude of 2300 meters, and started training for the Olympics. However, due to COVID-19, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed by one year, so the Kenyan field training period was extended. It was three months before the men’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics in August. The Korea Association of Athletics Federations appointed Eliza Mutai (43) of Kenya as Oh’s successor to coach Oh Ju-han, but Mu-tai could not control the stubborn Oh Ju-han, and Oh Joo-han took part in the men’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics held in Sapporo on August 8th. During the race, he withdrew at 15.6 km. On this day, Oh Joo-han sat down because of his thigh pain, and experts point to lack of training as the cause. When Director Oh, who had been training according to the weekly and monthly plans, died, it was said that Oh Joo-han did not train properly.
Expert “Insufficient training causes thigh pain”
In the 2022 Seoul International Marathon held in April, Oh Joo-han took the first place in the domestic division (11th in the international division) with 2 hours, 11 minutes and 16 seconds and defeated Park Min-ho (23 ‧ Kolon 2:11:43), who finished second in the domestic division, in 27 seconds. He was selected for the national team at the World Championships. However, compared to Oh Joo-han, who won the Seoul International Marathon and Gyeongju International Marathon for 6 consecutive times in 2 hours 5-6 minutes from 2012 to 2018, it is a very poor record. This is also the result of Oh Joo-han training alone in Kenya without a leader. For this reason, ahead of the World Championships, there were concerns in the track and field that “Oh Joo-han is highly likely to withdraw from the race like the Tokyo Olympics in this event,” but such predictions came true.
In the men’s marathon at the World Championships in which 63 people ran on that day, Oh Joo-han ran in the leading group up to the 8km point in the first half, but after that, she started to push back and passed the 24km point in 1 hour 15 minutes 58 seconds, and then gave up the race shortly after. If Park Min-ho, who placed 2nd in the preliminary round, had gone, it would have been more likely to have been completed. When Oh Joo-han gave up at the Tokyo Olympics in August last year, Shim Jong-seop (31, KEPCO) finished the race. He had crossed the finish line 49th. No Korean athlete has yet won a medal in the men’s marathon at the World Championships. Kim Jae-ryong (56, current manager of KEPCO) placed 4th at the 1993 Stuttgart Tournament, Germany’s best performance.
Affiliated team Cheongyang-gun Office “If it continues to be sluggish, the contract will be terminated at the end of the year”
A support poster for Oh Joo-han produced by Cheongyang-gun Office ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in August of last yearSome say that the cause of Oh Joo-han’s sluggishness lies in the Korea Athletics Federation or his team, Cheongyang County Office, but also in the athlete himself. According to local Kenyan residents, “Oh Joo-han is drinking alcohol without training properly.” In addition, from Oh Joo-han to brokers aiming for commissions appeared around them, it was pointed out that it is urgent to create an atmosphere where they can concentrate on training.
In this regard, the Cheongyang County Office, which has supported Oh Joo-han in annual salary and training expenses for 8 years since 2015, said, “If Oh Joo-han does not set a record within 2 hours and 8 minutes at the Gyeongju International Marathon in October, We plan to terminate the contract at the end of the year.”
Jong-se Lee (visiting professor at Yongin University, former head of sports department at Dong-A Ilbo)
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[ⓒ MK스포츠, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]