Daegu, Korea – World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt’s first 100m race of the season will be on 19th May in Daegu, Korea, the host city of the 2011 IAAF World Championships.

Bolt, who holds the World Records over the 100m and 200m, has agreed to open his 100m season at the 6th Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting. This will be his first visit to Korea and his first race in Asia since his masterful exploits at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where he rewrote three World Records in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m Relay.

At the IAAF World Championships in Berlin last year, Bolt again obliterated the field in the same events, with new World Records in the 100m (9.58) and the 200m (19.19).

“It is our immense privilege to have the world’s fastest man open his 100m season in Daegu,” said Dong-Hoo Moon, co-president of the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting. “He has tremendous support in Korea and everyone here is excited to see him run!”

The 100m Meeting Record of 9.94 was set by American Tyson Gay last September; Korea fans are already expecting the man known as ‘Lightning Bolt’ to set a new record this May. After Daegu, Bolt will appear in his first IAAF Diamond League race in Shanghai, China, on 23rd May.

The Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting is the only annual international athletics competition in Korea. Already in its sixth season, this year’s Meeting is one of the circuits of the newly established IAAF World Challenge. Tickets to the Meeting are available on Korea’s Interpark Web-site (http://sports.interpark.com/Ticket/Goods/GoodsInfo.asp?GoodsCode=10002656).

The Organizing Committees of both the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting and the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011 expect Bolt’s allure to generate massive interest in next year’s IAAF World Championships, which will be held from 27th August to 4th September.

Tickets to the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011 will be available for sale on 27th August 2010, on the occasion of the ‘1 Year to Go’ countdown event. For more information, please visit the Official Web-site (http://www.daegu2011.org/).