sports

The first-round preliminaries of the 2022-2023 DPRK male and female Premier League came to an end.

Unlike the previous four rounds of Premier League, the recent one was attended by relatively many teenage footballers. They left deep impressions on experts and amateurs as they offered a glimpse of the prospects for each team and showed some change made in the landscape of team title by a fierce contest of brainpower between coaches.

The winner of the first-round matches of the recent male premier league was still the April 25 team that had won four consecutive victories in the last premier league. However, the Sonbong and Hwaeppul teams drew public attention as they made remarkable progress with the passage of time.

The Sonbong took the 11th place in competitions held in April and August last year and the sixth place in the last premier league. In the early days of the recent one the team was not good in record.

In December last year it took the eighth place with one win, two draws and one defeat. But in the seven matches which took place only 50-odd days after it began to receive guidance of senior coach Kim Jong Min, it won six matches and lost one to obtain 23 points, thus taking the second place.

Kim Un Hyok, a young coach with remarkable ability and power of tenacious execution who came to take charge of the Hwaeppul team through the recent premier league, proficiently guided his players in training and matches while completing a game plan to enable the players to fully display their potentials in matches. The team, which had taken the tenth place in the last premier league, took the fourth place in the first stage of the recent one and it is expected that it will unfold exciting scenes in the future.

Meanwhile, popular teams in the first stage of the recent female premier league are the April 25 and Wolmido teams.

What is common to the two teams is that Han Chol Hak and Yun Yong Il, senior coaches of the teams, took charge of the teams at the same time as the premier league began and that they have achieved remarkable successes by leading their teams to overcome their shortcomings through skilful guidance.

The April 25, which had taken the fourth place in December last year, took the first place in the first stage by making strenuous efforts to maintain its status as a strong team in matches held from February this year and the Wolmido achieved great success as compared with the past season.

It is anticipated that the contest of brainpower between the coaches will grow fiercer as they make persistent efforts to attain a goal of achieving higher scores.