sports

Weightlifter wins nine gold medals in a year

Among weightlifters of top ten players of the DPRK for 2024 is Kang Hyon Gyong, women weightlifter of the Amnokgang Sports Club.

She was selected as one of top ten players of the DPRK for 2024 again after 2023.

Born to a common family in Sunam District of Chongjin City, Kang Hyon Gyong began to learn weightlifting at Sunam District Extracurricular Sports School.

Later, she was picked out as a player of the Amnokgang Sports Club and soon began to cut a conspicuous figure at competitions at home and then at international events.

Kang Hyon Gyong won three gold medals in the youth women’s 58kg category of the Asian youth and junior weightlifting championships, emerging as an ace of the women’s weightlifting.

But she was not content with it.

Clever and assiduous, she was constantly on guard against self-complacency and made exact demands on herself.

Once, she knew that her coach set a low daily training goal in consideration of the state of her health and asked him to set it higher, saying that her opponents would develop as much as she hesitated.

As a result, she mounted the winner’s podium in the successive international competitions.

Particularly, she won three international events held in 2014 in succession, snatching nine gold medals a year.

Man of strong willpower

Wang Myong Guk of the Ryongaksan Taekwon-Do Team is a player with very rich experience and proud ability.

He not only won victories in domestic and international competitions but also positively contributed to the victory of his team.

His successes are attributable to his strong willpower to overcome any difficulty as well as his high physical and technical ability.

For example, when he participated in the senior men's team sparring of the 10th Asian Taekwon-Do Championships, Wang played a decisive role in the team’s winning first place in the event by beating his opponent though he got a bruise on the head in the individual sparring contest held earlier.

His strong willpower and high sense of competition and ability were proved more clearly at the World Cup Taekwon-Do Games-2024 of the Ninth International Martial Arts Games held last year.

Wang played the semifinal match of the men’s over-92kg individual sparring with a Russian player who was two metres tall and nearly doubled his weight.

In the match, which was played grabbing the limelight of the spectators, Wang finally defeated his opponent against their expectations.

The strong sportsmanship of DPRK players was an example to be followed and in particular, the sparring between the DPRK and Russian players was really a fierce competition, said the world martial artists after seeing the competition. And they highly praised Wang, noting they wondered whether the DPRK player could hold out, but finally the Russian player collapsed and it was really a thrilling match.

Winner of Kim Jong Il Youth Honour Prize and People’s Athlete, Wang Myong Guk has so far been selected as one of top ten players of the DPRK four times.