Lee Jeong-sook named ‘Dong-A Marathon Player of the Year’

Lee Jeong-sook received the MVP prize at the "2014 Dong-A Marathon Athletes of the Year" awards with Pocari Sweat beverage’ held at Dong-A Media Center in Seoul’s Jongno district on Monday. The 48-year-old elementary school teacher has been honored with the prize for a second time after 2012.

The Dong-A Ilbo instated "the Dong-A Marathon Athletes of the Year" awards in 2007 for the first time in Korea to promote development of "grass-root" marathon. People eligible for the honors are those who participated in at least one of the two races -international marathons in Gongju and Gyeongju- hosted in October by Dong-A among the participants of the Seoul International Marathon and Dong-A Marathon held in March. The Dong-A Ilbo singles out five males and thee females in different age groups and select the MVP from among them. Efforts by candidates to expedite the development of marathon are an important criterion in evaluation. Lee, who was named the distinguished runner among female runners in their 40s, was named the MPV in a unanimous vote of all judges.

Lee won this year the championship in the female masters’ category at the Seoul International Marathon with a time of 2:48:08, and ranked atop at the Gyeongju International Marathon with a time of 2:51:56. She won the title seven times at the Seoul International Marathon alone, and earned the nickname the “Woman of Seoul.”

Lee said, “I`ve never expected to get awarded today since I already received the prize. I will consider this honor a tall order to work harder. I am very grateful to The Dong-A Ilbo for providing "runners" with chances to run. Her husband Choi Jin-hyeok, 51, was a career marathoner in the past, and her daughter, Jeong-yoon (sophomore at Gongju National University) is also an athlete of mid- to long-distance runs.

Jeong-yoon also won the gold medal in the female college student category of both 800-meter and 1,500-meter runs at the National Sports Festival for two consecutive years.