The 2025 Asian Athletics Championships is about to start, and a number of world-class stars have gathered in Gumi, South Korea, and there are many things to see

Pakistan's first Olympic gold medalist in athletics, Ashad Nadim, will compete at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships. In addition, Filipino Ernest John Ovina, who broke the 6-meter barrier for the first time among Asian pole vaulters, has arrived in Gumi, South Koreacity。 The 26th Asian Athletics Championships, which will be held from the 27th to the 31st at the Gumi Civic Stadium, will feature 1,197 athletes from 43 countries and regions.

Nadim, the men's javelin champion in athletics at the Paris Olympics

Hazura Kitaguchi (Japan), the women's javelin champion at the Paris Olympics, and Nizar Chopra (India), who won one gold and one silver in the men's javelin at the Olympics, did not participate, but several of the stars who have raised Asian athletics to the world level gathered in Gumi. One of the most striking names is Nadim. Nadim won the men's javelin throw final at last year's Paris Olympics with a new Olympic record of 92.97m. "Indian Hero" Chopra, who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, finished second behind Nadim with 89.45m, missing out on two consecutive Olympic titles.

Nadim suffered a knee injury ahead of the 2023 Asian Championships in Bangkok and gave up his qualification. With Chopra absent from the Asian Championships, Nadim is very likely to win the men's javelin championship for the first time at the Asian Championships.

Filipino pole vault star Ernest John Owina

Filipino pole vault star Ernest John Owena is the first Asian athlete to join the "6m Club". Ovina won the men's pole vault at the Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway in June 2023 with a time of jumping over 6.00m. He also set a new Asian record, six centimetres above the 5.94m he set in July 2022 when he won bronze at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Ovina is considered the tallest pole vaulter in Asian history. He became the first Asian athlete to win a medal in the event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and a silver medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. However, he finished fourth at last year's Paris Olympics with 5.90m, but unfortunately failed to stand on the podium. Ovina, who has no opponents in Asia, will challenge for a third consecutive Asian Championship title in Gumi, following Doha 2019 and Bangkok 2023.

The German and South Korean teams at home sent 43 men, 41 women, 7 high school hopefuls (4 men, 3 women), and 17 coaching staff, a total of 108 players. There are world-class players among them. Men's high jumper Woo Sang-hyuk has a stellar resume of finishing 4th at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics (2.35m), 2022 World Indoor Championships (2.34m), 2nd at the World Outdoor Championships (2.35m), and 2023 Diamond League Finals (2.35m).

This year, he won gold in four international competitions, including the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing (2.31m) and the Wat Gravity Challenge (2.29m) hosted by the sport's legend Barsim.

Woo Sang-hyuk poses for a photo with Mahuchik, the first place in the women's category, after winning the men's high jump at the 2025 Wat Gravity Challenge in Doha on May 10.

Woo Sang-hyuk is also the defending champion in the men's high jump at the Asian Championships. In the 2023 competition in Bangkok, Thailand, he won the championship by jumping over 2.28m. At that time, Woo Sang-hyuk won the Asian Championships for the first time in six years since the 2017 Bhuvaneswar in India (when he scored 2.30m).

At the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha, which was in a serious slump, Woo Sang-hyuk finished in a tie for seventh with a score of 2.19m. The Hangzhou Asian Championships, originally scheduled for 2021, were cancelled due to the pandemic. If he can reach the top at home this time, Woo Sang-hyuk will achieve the great cause of the triple crown of the Asian Championships.

At the 2023 Asian Championships in Bangkok, the Korean track and field team won 1 gold medal (Woo Sang-hyuk) and 2 bronze medals (men's 4x100m relay, men's triple jump Kim Jang-woo). At this year's Asian Championships, which is being held on home soil, they are looking forward to more medals.