sports

Path chosen without hesitation

Kim Yun Mi is a competent table tennis coach of the Hwaeppul Sports Club.

During her playing career she achieved marked successes in national and international events to be selected as one of the top 10 players of the DPRK and win the titles of Merited Athlete and People's Athlete.

After finishing her brilliant playing career, there were many options for her to choose.

But she dreamed of becoming a world-famous coach and decided to follow the path of a table tennis coach.

After graduating from Korea University of Physical Education, she became a table tennis coach of the Hwaeppul Sports Club, but it was not easy to fulfil her dream.

"To become a world-famous coach is as much difficult as to become a world-class player. In a sense, it is more difficult. The same was true of me. As the dream was big, there were as many difficulties and hardships. But I challenged again to realize my second dream," said Kim.

When she began to work as a coach, she sometimes wept with frustration. But she worked hard and managed to train several players to be the top three seeded masters at home and world table tennis stars like Kim Kum Yong.

At first some people doubted about the prospect of Kim Kum Yong, but the coach selected a unique playing technique suited to her characteristics and worked out a detailed training plan to perfect it. And on the basis of it she gave guidance to the training of her.

As a result, Kim Kum Yong was highly praised by the world table tennis circles as the superstar in Asia and the heroine who opened a new chapter in the development of the world table tennis by achieving successes in the mixed doubles of the table tennis event in the 33rd Olympic Games and the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships last year. She was also selected as one of the top 10 players of the DPRK in 2024.

Promising coach

Kang Hyong Rak, a table tennis coach of the Amnokgang Sports Club, learned to play table tennis in his childhood at the then Central District Juvenile Sports School in Pyongyang.

He cut a conspicuous figure at national competitions during his playing career at the Amnokgang Sports Club, attracting the attention of experts.

Later he was promoted to a coach, but at the back of his mind he always felt sorry for his failure to achieve successes in international games.

He set himself an ambitious goal to surely achieve the aim he had failed to fulfil as a player and redoubled efforts to attain it.

Early last year Kang Hyong Rak, as a coach of the national team, took charge of Ri Jong Sik, a strong player.

But he felt mixed feelings as he was placed under the psychological pressure that he had to coach to success without fail the player who had already been brought to the door to success by the other coach.

Realizing once again the original intention he had stated when he started his coaching career, he devoted time and energy to the guidance of training of Ri Jong Sik and finally succeeded.

Ri Jong Sik, who paired up with Kim Kum Yong in the mixed doubles of the table tennis event of the 33rd Olympic Games, displayed high spiritual strength and technical and tactical ability, greatly impressing experts and fans.

After losing their first match with the DPRK team, Japanese players said that Ri’s ability was better than they had imagined and his game play gained the admiration of the people.

As a pair again, Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong came second in the mixed doubles of the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships.

Kang Hyong Rak was chosen as one of the top 10 coaches of the DPRK in 2024 and is now regarded as a promising coach in his thirties.