SEOUL: South Korean Kim Hong-Yeol, a.k.a. Hong10, trumped reigning champion Mounir from France to take the Red Bull world breakdancing crown before a rapturous home crowd in Seoul on Saturday.
The 28-year-old snatched the title in a final dance-off against the 2012 winner, after 14 other contenders for the global b-boy championship had been eliminated.
“I’m speechless. All my effort and hard practice have finally paid off,” a tired but ecstatic Hong10, who won the title in 2006, said after his victory.
Sixteen b-boys from 10 nations including the United States, Brazil, France and Japan battled it out on the dance floor in front of a sell out crowd in the South Korean capital’s Jamsil Stadium.
Eight past winners and two wild card entrants competed with six dancers who had qualified through regional tournaments that covered some 90 countries.
B-boying, or breakdancing, originated in New York in the 1970s and then spread across the globe, gaining a devoted following in several Asian countries.
It is so popular in South Korea, that the government promotes the dance style as one of its cultural exports. Top Seoul b-boy groups like R16 and Maximum Crew have won a number of global competitions.
The Red Bull championship is one of the few individual, one-on-one contests and the 3,500-strong audience at the Jamsil arena entered enthusiastically into the gladiatorial spirit of the knockout format.
In each round of the whirlwind two-hour event, two dancers faced off on an open stage in the center of the arena, taking turns to show off their skills to hip-hop beats.
The crowd cheered, jeered and roared as the dancers taunted each other, circling their opponents and then performing their spins, twists and aerial moves so close as to make the other dancer flinch or step back.
Five judges made of prominent breakdancers raised a paper board with the winner’s name after each round, which lasted about three to four minutes.
The dancers were judged on the creativity and extremity of their dance routines as well as their attitude and showmanship during the dance-off.
The Red Bull BC One championship was launched in 2004 and the finals have been held in cities ranging from Johannesburg to Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.
South Korean clinches world breakdance title
South Korean clinches world breakdance title
St. Francis relics go on public show for first time in Italy
Assisi, Italy: Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on public display from Sunday for the first time for the 800th anniversary of his death, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled plexiglass case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (The Body of St. Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hill town’s Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis, who died on October 3, 1226, founded the Franciscan order after renouncing his wealth and devoting his life to the poor.
Giulio Cesareo, director of communications for the Franciscan convent in Assisi said he hoped the display could be “a meaningful experience” for believers and non-believers alike.
Cesareo, a Franciscan friar, said the “damaged” and “consumed” state of the bones showed that St. Francis “gave himself completely” to his life’s work.
His remains, which will be on display until March 22, were transferred to the basilica built in the saint’s honor in 1230.
But it was only in 1818, after excavations carried out in utmost secrecy, that his tomb was rediscovered.
Apart from previous exhumations for inspection and scientific examination, the bones of Saint Francis have only been displayed once, in 1978, to a very limited public and for just one day.
Usually hidden from view, the transparent case containing the relics since 1978 was brought out on Saturday from the metal coffer in which it is kept, inside his stone tomb in the crypt of the basilica.
The case is itself inside another bullet-proof and anti-burglary glass case.
Surveillance cameras will operate 24 hours a day for added protection of the remains.
St. Francis is Italy’s patron saint and the 800th anniversary commemorations of his death will also see the restoration of an October 4 public holiday in his honor.
The holiday had been scrapped nearly 50 years ago for budget reasons.
Its revival is also a tribute to late pope Francis who took on the saint’s name.
Pope Francis died last year at the age of 88.
‘Not a movie set’
Reservations to see the saint’s remains already amount to “almost 400,000 (people) coming from all parts of the world, with of course a clear predominance from Italy,” said Marco Moroni, guardian of the Franciscan convent.
“But we also have Brazilians, North Americans, Africans,” he added.
During this rather quiet time of year, the basilica usually sees 1,000 visitors per day on weekdays, rising to 4,000 on weekends.
The Franciscans said they were expecting 15,000 visitors per day on weekdays and up to 19,000 on Saturdays and Sundays for the month-long display of the remains.
“From the very beginning, since the time of the catacombs, Christians have venerated the bones of martyrs, the relics of martyrs, and they have never really experienced it as something macabre,” Cesareo said.
What “Christians still venerate today, in 2026, in the relics of a saint is the presence of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Another church in Assisi holds the remains of Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006 and who was canonized in September by Pope Leo XIV.
Experts said the extended display of St. Francis’s remains should not affect their state of preservation.
“The display case is sealed, so there is no contact with the outside air. In reality, it remains in the same conditions as when it was in the tomb,” Cesareo said.
The light, which will remain subdued in the church, should also not have an effect.
“The basilica will not be lit up like a stadium,” Cesareo said. “This is not a movie set.”
