▲ Park Si-hoon smiles brightly after winning the silver medal in the men's shot put at the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA, on the 6th (Korea time).
"Thor" Park Si-hoon (Ulsan Metropolitan City) has written a new chapter in history at the World Athletics U-20 Championships.
Today (the 6th, Korea time), Park threw 20.31 meters in the men's shot put final at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA, placing second behind Alessandro Borges of Brazil, who threw 20.35 meters.
Although he missed out on the gold medal by a mere 4 centimeters, Park etched a milestone in the history of South Korean track and field on the global stage.
Since the inaugural tournament in 1986, which is held biennially, South Korea had previously won one silver and five bronze medals at the U-20 World Championships.
Past medalists include Park Jae-hong in the men's high jump (bronze, 1998), Lee Jin-il in the men's 800 meters (silver, 1992), Park Jae-myung in the men's javelin throw (bronze, 2000), Jung Sang-jin in the men's javelin throw (bronze, 2002), Kim Hyun-sub in the men's 10,000-meter race walk (bronze, 2004), and Woo Sang-hyeok in the men's high jump (bronze, 2014).
Park has now stepped onto the podium 12 years after Woo Sang-hyeok.
He is the first-ever South Korean shot putter to do so.
Park advanced to the final by finishing second overall in Group 2 of the preliminaries with a throw of 19.69 meters, and briefly took first place with a 20.31-meter throw in his third attempt in the final.
However, Borges threw 4 centimeters further than Park in his fifth attempt to take the lead.
Park is a promising men's shot putter who holds all national age-group records across elementary, middle, and high school divisions.
Last May, at the 80th National Track and Field Championships, he set the second-best all-time South Korean record for men in the senior specification (7.26kg) with 19.10 meters, securing an early ticket to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. That same month, at the U-20 Asian Athletics Championships held in Hong Kong, he won the 6kg event with a U-20 Asian record of 20.65 meters.
After the competition, Park said, "While I am glad to win a silver medal, it is disappointing that I failed to break my personal best. I will work harder so that I don't leave with such regrets on the senior stage moving forward."
Park will now embark on a new challenge in senior competition, which uses the senior-spec 7.26kg shot.
(Photo provided by Korea Association of Athletics Federations, Yonhap News)
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