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Taeneung offers support for athletes preparing for Asiad

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-15 16:31

SEOUL - With the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games only a month away, the head of South Korea's National Training Center, also known as the Taeneung Athletes' Village, said the place offers utmost support to help athletes excel at the upcoming sports event.

The head, Kim In-kun, was a trainee of the center in the late 1960s when he was a national basketball player.

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He said the training center has become a more pleasant, relaxing place for athletes these days compared to the old days when he was in.

"As a matter of fact, in the early days of the training center athletes greatly disliked entering here, mostly because of excessive restrictions on their private lives," Kim said.

Kim claimed that the training center now offers an atmosphere in which athletes receive training while enjoying themselves at the same time, with better facilities and a greater degree of freedom allowed in their spare time.

Since its opening in 1966, the Taeneung Training Center has contributed greatly to the nation's sports development, producing numerous Olympic and Asian Games athletes.

South Korea will send more than 1,013 athletes in 41 sports to the upcoming Asian Games, with a goal to secure a second-place finish by winning more than 65 gold medals.

Four years ago, in Doha, Qatar, South Korea garnered 193 medals, including 58 gold medals, to finish in second after China. Japan won 50 golds. Expecting host nation China to retain its throne in the quadrennial event, Kim says South Korea must fend off a fierce challenge from Japan to claim the second place.

"Our athletes have determinations to win matches against Japan at any cost," Kim said.