(Source: The Korea Times)

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

South Korea in recent years has been obsessed with a shopping spree of international sporting events. The latest sport to drop in the cart is competitive sailing.

In a news conference in Seoul Monday, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moo-soo summarized the municipal government’s preparations for the inaugural Korea Match Cup from June 11-15 in the port of Jeongok, Hwaseong City, which is about 45 kilometers southwest of the capital.

The sailing competition, the third of the 10 World Match Racing Tour events scheduled for 2008, will feature several of the sport’s biggest names.

Britain’s Ian Williams, last year’s match racing world champion, has booked his spot, joining two of his rival skippers in Mathieu Richard of France and Paolo Cian of Italy.

Prior to the news conference, municipal authorities revealed an 11-meter racing yacht, jointly designed by New Zealand company Bakewell White and South Korea’s Advanced Marine Technology, in a lavish ceremony at the grass square fronting the Seoul City Hall. The manufacturers will build a fleet of eight boats to be used for the June event.

“South Korea’s geographic features as a peninsula provide potential for a strong marine leisure industry, and we want to be at the center of such growth,” Kim said.

“The Korea Match Cup is significant as the first international sailing competition to be hosted in the country and will certainly give us exposure as a destination for leisure boating,” he said.

The event will be staged in conjunction with a boat show, predictably titled “Korea International Boat Show 2008,” all part of a $282 million government initiative to expand and promote the country’s leisure boating industry.

The Korea Match Cup will feature 12 teams, including a South Korean team and the winner of an Asian preliminary to be held in Japan from May 8-11.

Nine skippers have confirmed their participation, including eight among last year’s top 10 finishers in the tour. Sweden’s Bjorn Hansen and Magnus Holmberg, Australia’s Peter Gilmour, France’s Seb Col, Denmark’s Jesper Radich and New Zealand’s Adam Minoprio are the other names inked on the list.

The minimum prize purse of $320,000 offered at the Jeongok event is the highest on the World Match Racing Tour for 2008.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/136_22493.html