The South Gyeongsang Province city of Changwon is striving to host a global shooting competition in 2018, an official said on Wednesday.
Changwon, Slovenia’s Maribor and Qatar’s Doha are bidding to host the 2018 World Shooting Championships.
The International Shooting Sport Federation will select the host city during its general assembly in London on April 17. If Changwon is successful, it will be the second time for Korea to host the event ― Seoul hosted the championships in 1978.
“I believe we have the capability to host the shooting competition,” Changwon Mayor Park Wan-su said in a news conference on Wednesday in Seoul.
A compact competition venue and facilities located close to the center of the city are among the city’s strengths, he noted.
“We have experience in organizing shooting events. Changwon has hosted more than 10 national competitions, and we also staged the ISSF World Cup five times from 2003-2011.”
Changwon also successfully organized a series of international sporting events, including Formula 3 racing and Asian Cycling Challenger Cup, the official added.
Korea has a long history of competitive shooting. It first participated in Olympic shooting events in 1956 and has been a regular participant since then, winning a total of nine medals so far, including a gold medal in the men’s 50 m pistol at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The first world shooting championships was held in 1897 in Lyons, France, following the 1896 Olympics Games. Since 1953, the ISSF World Championships has been held every four years, two years after each Olympics.
The last event was held in Munich in 2010 and Granada, Spain is preparing to host the 2014 event.
The 2018 World Shooting Championships will be held for 15 days between August and September, with more than 4,000 athletes and officials from 116 member countries expected to attend.
“Asia has never hosted the World Championships, except the 1978 Seoul event, so it’s time to bring it back to Asia,” Park added.
By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldm.com)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
