Seoul city launches break dance team, fields 2 dancers to compete in Asian Games

The Seoul city government has launched a break dance team to nurture competitors for the new Olympic sport, and two dancers from the team will compete in the upcoming Asian Games in China, officials said Wednesday. Breaking, also known as break dancing, has been newly added to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. It is also an official sport at the Asian Games in China's Hangzhou that will run Sept. 23 to Oct. 8. The city's new works team has been formed under a consensus with the cultur

More SportsSept. 6, 2023

S. Korea looking to win early Olympic qualifying event on home soil

South Korea will try to please their home supporters and win their group in an early Olympic men's football qualifying tournament, head coach Hwang Sun-hong said Tuesday. Starting Wednesday, South Korea will host Group B action at the 2024 Asian Football Confederation U-23 Asian Cup qualifying tournament. South Korea's under-22 team will play Qatar on Wednesday, Kyrgyzstan on Saturday and Myanmar next Tuesday. All three matches will kick off at 8 p.m. at Changwon Football Center in the

SoccerSept. 5, 2023

Spurs captain Son Heung-min scores hat trick

Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur has completed his fourth career hat trick in the Premier League, earning his first goals of the new season in style. Son netted three goals in a 5-2 rout of Burnley at Turf Moor in Burnley, England, on Saturday. This was Spurs' fourth match of the 2023-2024 season, and Son, who was named captain before the start of this campaign, had been held goalless in three previous contests before this trifecta. Son's previous hat trick came almost exactly a year

SoccerSept. 3, 2023

S. Korean striker Hwang Ui-jo loaned to second-tier English club

Having been unable to find his footing with the Premier League side Nottingham Forest, South Korean international Hwang Ui-jo will get a fresh start with the second-tier club Norwich City. Norwich City announced on their website on Saturday that they have acquired Hwang on loan from Nottingham Forest for the rest of this season. Hwang first signed with Forest in August 2022 but was immediately loaned to Olympiacos FC in Greece, with both teams owned by the Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marina

SoccerSept. 2, 2023

Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin goes 5 solid innings in no-decision vs. Rockies

Toronto Blue Jays starter Ryu Hyun-jin has settled for a no-decision after pitching five solid innings in a notorious hitters' park, with the bullpen costing the South Korean pitcher his fourth consecutive win. Ryu held the Colorado Rockies to two runs on four hits in five innings at Coors Field in Denver on Friday local time, as the Jays won 13-9. Ryu struck out three and walked two while remaining at 3-1 for the season. His ERA rose slightly from 2.25 to 2.48. All the damage against Ryu c

BaseballSept. 2, 2023

[Graphic News] Hangzhou to host largest-ever Asian Games: organizers

China’s COVID-delayed Asian Games are set to be the largest ever, organizers said, as host city Hangzhou ramps up preparations ahead of the opening ceremony in September. The Games in Hangzhou were due to take place in September 2022 but were postponed by a year because of China’s strict “zero-COVID” rules. Over 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and regions have signed up, with organizing official Ding Jiong telling reporters that Hangzhou would host “the Asian Game

More SportsSept. 1, 2023

Pro-basketball team KCC Egis to move home from Jeonju to Busan

The professional basketball team KCC Egis will relocate its home base from the southwestern city of Jeonju to Busan on the southeast coast. The Korea Basketball League on Wednesday approved a proposal to move the team's home city during a board meeting held at the KBL center in southern Seoul. The KCC Egis was founded in 2001 in Jeonju after acquiring the Hyundai Gullivers, a team based in the central city of Daejeon, and moving the home city. With the approval, the team will bid farewell t

More SportsAug. 30, 2023

S. Korea wins men's doubles title, enjoys record haul at badminton world championships

The South Korean badminton duo of Seo Seung-jae and Kang Min-hyuk have struck gold in the men's doubles at the world championships in Denmark, giving their country a record title haul. Seo and Kang, world No. 6, rallied to defeat 11th-ranked Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 14-21, 21-15, 21-17 for the men's doubles crown at the Badminton World Federation World Championships in Copenhagen on Sunday (local time). Seo and Kang are the first South Korean men's double

More SportsAug. 28, 2023

S. Koreans finish well out of contention at final PGA Tour playoff event

Three South Korean players have ended up well back of the pack at the final playoff event on the PGA Tour. Kim Si-woo and Tom Kim tied for 20th place at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday, with both finishing at six-under 276. Kim Si-woo shot a four-under 66 in the final round at East Lake Golf Club with six birdies and two bogeys. Tom Kim went bogey-free in his round of 67. Im Sung-jae finished alone in 24th place at three-under 279, following a 69 in the final round. He was all over th

GolfAug. 28, 2023

'Korean Zombie' wraps up MMA career at UFC Fight Night

"The Korean Zombie," Jung Chan-sung, a 36-year-old South Korean mixed martial arts veteran, lost his battle against former Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion Max Holloway at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on Saturday, seeing the two-time UFC title challenger leaving the octagon for good. Despite being on the losing foot throughout the fight, the Korean Zombie gave his best during the adrenaline-fueled bout. Known for his never-back-down fighting style, J

More SportsAug. 27, 2023

Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin wins 3rd straight start

Ryu Hyun-jin of the Toronto Blue Jays has won his third straight start while also helping snap the club's three-game losing streak. Ryu held the Cleveland Guardians to three runs -- two earned -- on four hits in five innings, as the Blue Jays prevailed 8-3 at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Saturday. Two of those hits were solo home runs. Ryu, who struck out five and didn't walk any, improved to 3-1 for the year, while his ERA went up slightly from 1.89 to 2.25. The South Korean left-hande

BaseballAug. 27, 2023

Diminutive fencer aims high at Asian Games

In the past, fencers used to look down on their South Korean foe Song Se-ra, not only figuratively but literally as well. Song is listed at 164 centimeters, tiny by fencing standards. Song, world No. 5 in women's epee, gives 21 cm to the top-ranked Marie-Florence Candassamy of France. Song is the shortest one among the top-10 female epee fencers in the world today. However, at the 2022 World Fencing Championships in Cairo, no one stood taller than Song. She won gold medals in both the indiv

More SportsAug. 25, 2023

Teen table tennis player determined to push herself to limits in Asiad debut

For South Korean table tennis player Shin Yu-bin, suffering a wrist injury toward the end of 2021 might have seemed like a career-derailing event at the time. Nearly two years later, Shin is gearing up for her first Asian Games, having been able to use the time on the sidelines wisely to work on different elements of her game. The 19-year-old now believes it will serve her well at the Asiad in Hangzou, China, starting next month. Shin, one of South Korea's rising stars in ping pong, suffere

More SportsAug. 25, 2023

Tom Kim 5 back of 1st round lead at Tour Championship

South Korean golfer Tom Kim sits five strokes off the lead after the opening round of the PGA Tour's final playoff event. Kim shot a three-under 67 to begin the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta on Thursday. He is tied for 14th place in the exclusive field of 30 players. Kim qualified for the playoff finale by ranking inside the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings after two playoff events. As No. 16, Kim started the Tour Championship at two-under in the "starting stroke

GolfAug. 25, 2023

Asiad-bound taekwondo practitioners fueled by failures

Jang Jun and Lee Da-bin, two South Korean taekwondo medal hopefuls at the upcoming Asian Games in China, both want to use their recent slip-ups as fuel. Lee, 26, will be going for her third consecutive Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou next month. Her first gold came in the lightweight (62 kilograms) event in 2014, but she moved up to heavyweight (+67kg) under the revised weight divisions in 2018 and won gold there too. She will be the defending champion in the heavyweight class in September. &

More SportsAug. 25, 2023

By missing podium at worlds, high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok hits speed bump in trailblazing career

That a top-six finish at the World Athletics Championships can be seen as a disappointment for Woo Sang-hyeok indicates just how far the South Korean high jumper has come. It wasn't that long ago when the goal for any Korean high jumper competing at a worlds was to make it out of the preliminary phase and qualify for the final. Woo then raised the figurative bar high by winning silver at last year's World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. South Korea, a country long without an

More SportsAug. 23, 2023

3 S. Korean players looking to strike it rich at final PGA Tour playoff event

A trio of South Korean players will be among the last 30 left standing as the PGA Tour's annual playoffs draw to a conclusion this week. Tom Kim, Im Sung-jae and Kim Si-woo all ranked inside the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings after the end of the second playoff event, the BMW Championship, on Sunday in Olympia Fields, Illinois, and earned themselves a ticket to the Tour Championship, which tees off Thursday in Atlanta. There will be no cut in the exclusive-field event at East Lake Golf C

GolfAug. 22, 2023

Klinsmann proud of Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae as 'ambassadors of Korean football'

South Korea head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is now linked to his two best players on the men's national football team in more ways than one. Klinsmann, one of the world's premier strikers in the 1990s, spent the latter part of his club career with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and Bayern Munich in his native Germany. Those two clubs now employ two South Korean stars. Longtime South Korea captain Son Heung-min was given Tottenham's armband before the start of the 2023-24 seas

SoccerAug. 21, 2023

Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin wins 2nd straight start, extends unearned run streak to 14 innings

Toronto Blue Jays starter Ryu Hyun-jin has won his second straight start while increasing his stretch of not giving up an earned run to 14 innings. Ryu gave up two runs, both unearned, on four hits in five innings against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on Sunday (local time), helping the Blue Jays to a 10-3 victory. Ryu struck out a season-high seven batters and walked just one. The South Korean left-hander improved to 2-1 for the season and lowered his ERA from 2.

BaseballAug. 21, 2023

Spain defeat England in final of record-breaking Women's World Cup

SYDNEY (Reuters) -- Spain defeated England 1-0 in the final of the Women's World Cup on Sunday, capping off a tournament that has broken attendance and TV records and raised hopes of a surge in interest for the women's game. Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the ninth edition of the global showpiece event was the first to be held in the southern hemisphere. While local interest ebbed when Australia exited in the semi-finals, just shy of two million fans will have passed through t

SoccerAug. 20, 2023