The 107th National Sports Festival closed on Oct. 22 at Jeju World Cup Stadium in Seogwipo after seven days in Jeju. The MVP award went to gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong (Jecheon City Hall), who won four golds.
Six events, six medals
Yeo won the women's all-around (52.966), then vault, balance beam and floor. A team all-around silver and an uneven bars bronze meant she medalled in every event she entered.
She took 30 of 56 votes from the press corps. She is only the third gymnast to be named MVP, after Kim Kyung-hoon in 1986 and Sung Ji-hye in 2012, and receives a trophy and 5 million won.
Hwang Sun-woo's unofficial five
Swimmer Hwang Sun-woo (Gangwon Provincial Office) won four official golds, including the 200m freestyle, and also took the mixed medley relay 400m, a demonstration event. He was disqualified in the 200m individual medley for an illegal kick on the breaststroke leg.
An MVP this year would have been his fifth, tying Park Tae-hwan's record. Kim Seo-yeong, Kim Young-beom and Yang Jae-hoon also won four swimming golds each.
Gyeonggi wins again
Gyeonggi Province took the overall title with 67,273 points, its fifth straight win since 2022. Gyeongbuk (54,888) was second and Seoul (54,186) third.
Sixty records fell during the week, including six Korean records and two unofficial world records in shooting. About 30,000 athletes and officials came from 17 cities and provinces and from overseas Korean sports bodies.
Next year in Hwaseong
The 108th festival is set for Oct. 8–14, 2027, with Hwaseong as the main host city and events across Gyeonggi Province.
Stands and pitch of Jeju World Cup Stadium in Seogwipo, where the closing ceremony was held (taken January 2007; not a photo of this year's festival). 张元柏 / CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
