2016 FIG Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships will take place in Incheon (KOR)
Doha Qatar AGU Office 22 November 2015: The Korea Gymnastics Association will host the 2016 Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships and World Age Group Competitions, which will take place in Incheon, Korea’s third largest city. The World Championships will be contested from June 17-19 and World Age Group Competitions June 13-15, 2016, respectively.
Incheon has an excellent history of hosting first-class sporting events, including the 2014 Asian Games, the second largest multisporting event after the Olympic Games. The 2016 Aerobic Worlds will be held at the Namdong Gymnasium, the same venue that hosted gymnastics at the 2014 Games.
Korea established itself as a World power in Aerobic Gymnastics almost from the inception of the sport as an FIG discipline. It’s most successful Aerobic gymnast, Park Kwang-Soo, won a total of seven medals, three of them gold, in World competition between 1995 and 2000.
After a medal drought that lasted most of the first decade of the century, Korea burst back onto the world scene in 2012 when Ryu Jusun, Lee Kyung Ho and Kim Guontaeck tied powerhouse China for World gold in Trio competition. Korea’s Trio followed up with a bronze medal performance in 2014, where Korea also took bronze in the newly established Aerobic Dance category.
Aerobic World Championships take place every two years, and the FIG is thrilled to bring them to Asia for the second time, following the 2006 edition in Nanjing (CHN). World titles in seven Aerobic categories will be up for grabs in Incheon, including: Men’s and Women’s Individual, Mixed Pairs, Trio, Group, Aerobic Step and Aerobic Dance. More than 300 athletes from at least 30 countries are expected to participate in 2016.
The World Age Group competitions, a competition for top flight gymnasts who are not yet age-eligible to compete in the senior division, offers an exciting look at the stars of Aerobic Gymnastics of tomorrow.