Gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong wins four golds, MVP title as Gyeonggi Province tops National Sports Festival

Gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong, 24, of Jecheon City Hall won four gold medals at the 107th National Sports Festival to be named the event's most valuable player, while Gyeonggi Province claimed the overall regional title.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said the seven-day festival concluded Thursday with a closing ceremony at Jeju World Cup Stadium. The competition drew about 30,000 athletes across 50 sports — 49 official and one exhibition.

Yeo swept the women's open artistic gymnastics events, taking gold in the floor exercise, balance beam, vault and individual all-around. She also added a silver in the team all-around and a bronze on the uneven bars, finishing with six medals in total.

No gymnastics athlete had won the festival's MVP award since Seong Ji-hye in 2012, making Yeo's selection the first in 14 years. She also claimed gold on the vault at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games earlier this year.

Ahn Young-hoon, 22, of Inha University and cyclist Kwon Ji-seong, 18, of the Gangwon Province Cycling Federation each won five gold medals. Ahn swept the women's university division track events — the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay and mixed 1,600-meter relay — becoming the first athlete in history to win five titles in track events at the festival. Kwon took gold in the men's under-18 4-kilometer team pursuit, omnium, 30-kilometer Madison, individual road race and team road race.

The festival produced 60 records or ties in all — two unofficial world records, six national records, 18 national junior records, one national junior tie, 31 meet records and two meet ties. Among multi-event winners, two athletes won five golds, 11 won four, 48 won three and 162 won two.

In the overall regional standings, Gyeonggi Province topped the table with 424 medals and a combined score of 67,273 points. North Gyeongsang Province finished second with 54,888 points, followed by Seoul with 54,186 points.

The achievement award — given to the region showing the greatest improvement over the previous festival — went to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, South Jeolla Province and South Chungcheong Province, in that order. In the under-18 division standings, Gyeonggi Province ranked first, Seoul second and North Gyeongsang Province third.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said it reviewed 7,049 competition results during the festival and introduced a new digital scoreboard system to improve record-keeping accuracy. The opening and closing ceremonies also marked the first time the National Sports Festival used NFT digital tickets.

Korean Sport & Olympic Committee President Yoo Seung-min said in his closing remarks that he hoped "the experiences gained at the National Sports Festival will carry over to sports communities across each region, driving the development of local sports and strengthening the foundation of Korean athletics."

The National Sports Festival flag was handed over to Gyeonggi Province, which will host the next edition. The 108th National Sports Festival is scheduled to run across Gyeonggi Province from Oct. 8 to Oct. 14, 2027.