Returning After 10 Years to Join National Team... A Harder Race Than Others When the "Ground is Wet"

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Yesterday (September 29), in the men's 1,600-meter relay, a national team athlete powerfully sprinted across the track while overcoming the barrier of disability.

Reporter Han Sung-hee covered the great challenge of JANG MINHO, who has become the first athlete with a visual impairment to compete in both the Asian Games for able-bodied athletes and the Asian Games for athletes with disabilities.

[Reporter]

On a track dampened by three consecutive days of rain, JANG MINHO steps into lane 3 as the first runner for South Korea in the men's 1,600-meter relay final.

Bursting out of the blocks at the starting signal, JANG MINHO sprinted with all his might to overtake the Philippine runner in the adjacent lane before handing over the baton.

After the national team finished the race in 6th place with a time of 3 minutes, 6.59 seconds, JANG MINHO opened up about the difficulties and regrets that other runners did not have to experience.

[JANG MINHO/National Track Relay Team: Because it rained and the ground was wet, when the light reflected, I had some trouble with my vision, so I feel like I couldn't fully concentrate on the race.]

After giving up his dream as an athlete during his high school years, JANG MINHO returned to the track 10 years later in 2023 at the age of 26, only to receive a devastating visual impairment diagnosis last year.

Due to retinitis pigmentosa, his field of vision narrowed, and only about 30 percent of his optic nerves currently remain.

Even so, JANG MINHO did not give up.

Running harder than ever, he was selected for both the national teams for able-bodied athletes and athletes with disabilities for the Asian Games for the first time in history, and proved his competitiveness by contributing to a new South Korean record in the mixed relay preliminaries at this event.

[JANG MINHO/National Track Relay Team: I started track and field again with the goal of competing in the Asian Games, and coming to the dream stage I had imagined and being able to run my absolute best brings me overwhelming joy.]

Considered a strong favorite to win the sprint events at the Asian Games for athletes with disabilities opening in three weeks, JANG MINHO hopes his challenge can serve as inspiration for someone.

[JANG MINHO/National Track Relay Team: For anyone who wants to challenge themselves with a dream, I think it would be great if they just gave it their absolute best.]

The sprint of JANG MINHO, who turned adversity into opportunity, does not stop here.

(Camera: Park Hyun-chul, Kim Se-kyung | Video Editing: Kim Jin-won)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.