29,044 athletes to compete at 107th National Sports Festival in Jeju

A total of 29,044 athletes and officials have registered for the 107th National Sports Festival, hosted by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) under President Yoo Seung-min and organized by the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Sports Council, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju Provincial Office of Education.

The KSOC said Tuesday that registered participants include 19,576 athletes — 12,435 men and 7,141 women — and 9,468 officials, up 253 from the 28,791 who took part last year. Registration ran from July 22 through 3 p.m. on Aug. 13.

The tournament draw for 28 bracket-format events covering 417 individual competitions will be held Thursday at a seminar room on the second floor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Hall. This year the KSOC will introduce an automated computer-based draw system, with the entire process streamed live on the KSOC TV YouTube channel.

The automated system reduces the travel and waiting burden on provincial and sports federation officials who previously had to attend the manual draw in person. It also improves fairness and transparency by using a secure random-number algorithm to assign matchups automatically.

The 107th National Sports Festival runs Oct. 16-22 at Gangchanghak General Stadium and 73 other venues across Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. It marks the first time the island has hosted the event in 12 years, since the 95th edition in 2014. Athletes will compete across 50 sports, vying for the honor of their respective cities and provinces.