South Korea’s track and field athlete Kim Deok-hyeon has made it into the finals of the men’s long jump at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu.

Kim on Thursday recorded eight-point-two meters in the preliminaries to enter the finals in eleventh place among the twelve finalists. Kim is the first South Korean athlete to make it past the preliminary rounds at the games.

Meanwhile, the South Korean male 16-hundred-meter relay team posted a new Korean record at the meet.

Although the team finished eighth place in their group and failed to get past the preliminaries, it broke the Korean record of three minutes, four-point-44 seconds, which was set in 1998 at the Asian championships.

A South African team including double amputee Oscar Pistorius, who is known as the “Blade Runner,” advanced to the finals of the event with a time of two minutes, 59-point-21 seconds, setting a new record for the country.

In the men’s high jump, Jesse Williams from the U.S. grabbed the gold with a jump of two-point-35 meters, and Olha Saladuha from Ukraine won the gold in women’s triple jump.

In the men’s 400 meter hurdles, David Greene from Britain took the gold with a time of 48-point-26 seconds.

And in the women's 400 meter huddles, Lashinda Demus from the U.S. grabbed the gold with a time of 52-point-47 seconds.

The U.S. locked in more gold with a win by Jennifer Barringer Simpson in the women’s 1500-meter. She finished with a time of four minutes five-point-40 seconds.