IAFF World Championships in Daegu

I don't know who all paid attention to them, but the IAFF World Championships were recently held in Daegu, South Korea, just an hour and a half from Ulsan.  I used to be a track and field athlete, so when I heard about this I thought it would be awesome to go watch some of it, but it was during my first week of school so I didn't anticipate going.  My first day in school was Monday, August 29th, and the students' first day in school was Thursday, September 1st.  That Thursday I learned that the students were going to the World Championship races on Friday, the second day of school, and that I might be able to go.  I found out at the end of the day that I was able to go which was awesome!!

I went in early to help move some boxes (a bit of a 'thank you' gesture) then the whole school left in about 10 buses.  We were at the races for about 3 hours I think, then we went to lunch at a pretty nice restaurant and then headed back to the school.  It was an amazing field trip, on the first week of school!  I feel very lucky :D

The stadium!

Jack and some of our kids where they take your tickets.  The tickets were 30,000 Won a piece ($30) which is super expensive if you're taking a whole school!  I guess what happened is Hyundai bought and donated thousands of tickets to schools around Korea.  I believe they paid for the whole trip as well, transportation and food included, pretty cool!

A view from my seat.  I actually wanted to walk around and explore the stadium, but I was a chaperon so I felt like that may have been a poor judgement call.  Good seats though, we were close and had a television right in front of us.

Walter Dix of the USA in his blocks for the 200 Meter semi-final.

Walter is the 3rd from the front here.

And he won his heat!  He ended up taking the silver medal behind Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who holds world records in the 100, 200 and 4X100 with his teammates.

Jack.

Another teacher and some of our kids!