The 54th sports contest of artistes took place at the Basketball Gymnasium on Chongchun Street in Pyongyang.
The contest brought together officials, creators, artistes, teachers and others in the field of art and culture.
The event, divided into the cinematic art and theatrical art fields, included various events such as basketball, volleyball, table tennis, tennis, tug of war, Taekwon-Do, ssirum (Korean wrestling) and sports and amusement games.
The players fully demonstrated the techniques they practised in ordinary days.
The cinematic art field won the men’s basketball competition by displaying techniques and fighting spirit as good as those of professionals, and the theatrical art field won the women’s volleyball. As the matches were fierce and the outcomes of them were unpredictable, the two-day contest made both the players and spectators nervous.
Rooters were also quite enthusiastic.
The sports contest of artistes is famous for spectacular cheering activities reflecting the characteristics of their occupation. The rooters of both teams made the gymnasium seethe with a fever of excitement throughout the contest, cheering as directed by their cheerleaders. Whenever a match ended, the rooters of the two teams unfolded scenes of singing, dancing, acrobatic and other feats to give full play to their artistry.
The seesaw ball games thrilled the spectators, while the sports and amusement games were quite impressive as they both demonstrated the players’ competitiveness and evoked laughter. What was particularly attractive was a game in which one player of each team in a big tube tied to the opponent’s with a short rope pulled the rival.
When the whistle sounded, a woman, full of confidence, pulled her rival inch by inch and a man pretended to be pulled by the opponent to exhaust him before pulling him to win the game.
The sports and amusement games climaxed with the tug of war as ever.
The tug of war can be said to be a match between conductors of both teams. Both teams pulled the rope in unison against each other according to their conductor’s signals. The conductor of the cinematic art team beat the opponent 3-0 by making effective use of his tactics while promptly coping with the tactics of the rival.
The field of theatrical art came first in total standings.
