Park Min-gyu (Yongin City Hall) has captured his 11th career Halla Jangsa title at the Withus Pharm 2026 Folk Wrestling Uiseong Garlic Jangsa Wrestling Tournament.

Today (November 5), Park defeated Choi Seong-hwan (Uiseong County Office) 3-0 in the Halla class (105kg or lighter) Jangsa final (best-of-five) held at the Uiseong Gymnasium in Gyeongsangbuk-do.

With this victory, Park secured the top spot in two consecutive folk wrestling tournaments, following the Chuseok tournament last month, and claimed his second Halla Jangsa title of this season.

During the Chuseok tournament final, Park defeated his rival Kim Mu-ho (Ulju County Office), who was on a 27-match winning streak this season, 3-1 to snap a seven-match losing streak in head-to-head folk wrestling matchups and secure a victory for the first time in about a year and a half.

Park has continued his strong late-season momentum, also defeating Kim Mu-ho 2-1 to claim the gold medal in the historic class (105kg or lighter) final at the 107th National Sports Festival held on October 21.

Park won the first round of the final with his signature Deulbaejigi (lift-and-throw), and then countered Choi's Deulbaejigi in the second round to pull ahead 2-0.

He sealed the championship without dropping a single round by succeeding with a Milachigi (push-out) in the third round.

Meanwhile, Kim Mu-ho, a powerhouse in the Halla class with 14 career Halla Jangsa titles, moved up a weight class to compete in the Baekdu class (140kg or lighter) for this tournament, but was eliminated in the Round of 32 after losing 0-2 to Kim Jin (Jeungpyung County Office).

The reason he competed in the Baekdu class was to challenge himself to become the Cheonhajangsa (absolute champion) by overcoming the weight class barrier.

The Cheonhajangsa division at the Yeongam Cheonhajangsa Wrestling Grand Festival, which opens on November 30, is a stage that determines the strongest wrestler on the sand regardless of weight class.

Last year, Kim competed in the weight-limit-free Cheonhajangsa division at his Halla class weight, but lost 1-2 in the quarterfinals to "wrestling monster" Kim Min-jae (Yeongam County Folk Wrestling Team).

(Photo courtesy of the Korea Ssireum Association, Yonhap News)