On April 3rd, defending champions, Dankook University, repeated their victory, taking the top spot at the 20th Haksan Kim Seong-ryul National Jangsa Ssireum Contest held in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. Competing teams hailed from 13 universities. Dankook defeated Inje University and Inha University to go on to the finals where the team took the winning trophy after beating Kyungnam University 4:3.
Ssireum team captain, Ji-yul Kim (Dept. of International Sports, Senior), received a thunderous applause from the audience after demonstrating his fighting spirit and ending a close match in success, despite an injury.
In the individual rounds, Yeong-chan Song (Dept. of International Sports, Sophomore) won the Yeoksa class (105 kg amateur weight class) again after also taking first place at the 53rd Presidential Cup National Ssireum Championship.
Coach Doo-sik Joo, who received the Best Coach Award, said that “Yeong-chan and Ji-yul played key roles in the win, despite personal injuries,” and expressed his gratitude to the team saying, “I would like to thank all the athletes who displayed their mental strength and fighting spirits and to all members of the Ssireum team who united in the name of Dankook.”