World championships celebrate dreams, passion in opening ceremony

The southeastern city of Daegu marked the official start of the World Championships in Athletics with a lavish opening ceremony here Saturday, celebrating the dreams and passion of nearly 2,000 athletes participating in the world's biggest athletics competition. The top event by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will go on for nine days. This year's competition, which has attracted a total of 1,945 athletes from 202 countries, is the largest ever. The 75-minute ceremony at the 66,422-seat Daegu Stadium was composed of five parts: "gathering," "preparing," "awakening," "sprinting" and "dreams coming true." Performers of "dadeumi," or Korean wooden pounding sticks, signaled the start of the ceremony with their beating of cloth-covered stone blocks. Then a dance troupe named "Welcoming Wind" entered the stadium to set the tone for the opening ceremony. National flags of the 202 participating countries were marched in, and the Korean national flag, the Taegeukgi, was hoisted to a performance of the national anthem. Lamine Diack, president of the IAAF, said he was looking forward to "nine days of thrilling, top-class competition" in Daegu. "Significantly, the IAAF World Championships will be the first IAAF World Championships to feature a new competition timetable, with its compact and exciting format designed to attract new legions of athletics fans," Diack said. "And with the latest Mondo track surfaces in Daegu, there are perfect conditions to deliver performances which live up to that interest." South Korean President Lee Myung-bak declared the opening of the championships. He later thanked Daegu citizens and the local organizing committee "for their dedicated efforts and hard work" in setting up the competition. "I am confident that the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011 will serve as a present from our hearts to all our neighbors in the global community," Lee said. Daegu Mayor Kim Bum-il, a co-chair of the organizing committee, and said he hoped citizens of Daegu would give their support to athletes and visitors. "With one heart, we ask everyone to enjoy the festivities that will happen in Daegu," Kim said. The ceremony culminated with the playing of a commemorative video for the late former marathoner Sohn Kee-chung. He was a Korean native who won the 1936 Olympic marathon gold medal while representing Japan during Japanese colonial rule. An interactive media art show and fireworks wrapped up the opening ceremony. Lee Do-hoon, who prepared the presidential inauguration in 2008 and the opening ceremony of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, was the executive director of the ceremony here.