sports

Prolific coach of women weightlifting stars

Jong Song Hui, one of the top ten coaches in 2023, is a lecturer at the weightlifting department of Central Sports School.

She began to work as a lecturer at the weightlifting department of the school in 2004 after graduating from the school.

Since then she has put her heart and soul into training talented sportspersons. Sometimes she walked a long distance to select students with suitable physical constitution and looked after young students with parental care.

As a result, Ri Suk, one of her students, won the then national sports contest of juvenile sports schools in 2015 and bagged six and three gold medals respectively at the women's 53kg category events of the 2018 and 2019 Asian juvenile and junior weightlifting championships.

Her former student continued to achieve remarkable successes in the international events.

In international tournaments held last year and this year Ri Suk established several new world and world youth records and snatched six gold medals in total.

Competent as a coach as well as a teacher, Jong coached Kang Hyon Gyong to successes in the women's weightlifting 55kg category of the 19th Asian Games held in 2023 and the 2023 IWF Grand Prix tournament. Kang set new world, Asian and Grand Prix records and topped the podium.

"A teacher is like a gardener. Flowers bloom beautifully as much as the gardener directs devotion and efforts. I have adopted this opinion as my lifetime motto since I embarked on the career as an educator," said Jong Song Hui.

Experienced and competent coach

Ri Chol Nam, weightlifting coach of the April 25 Combat Sports Team, is a gifted coach who trained four Merited Sportsmen and helped many players steal the show in international and national events in the past.

His position as an experienced and competent coach in the national weightlifting circles is evidenced by the fact that he has so far been selected as one of the top 10 coaches of the country for the sixth time.

His face always mirrors his serious and passionate thinking, cool-headedness and courage.

It is his ambition to train all the players in his charge into world-class weightlifting stars.

When Ri Chong Song won victory in a national contest for the first time, Ri Chol Nam was depressed rather than pleased. Because it weighed on him that Ri Chong Song had not displayed his ability to the full, though he would have been able to set a new record.

He made a cool-headed analysis of the course of his instruction and guidance of training once again, worked out an innovative training plan and applied it to make sure that Ri Chong Song set several new national records and won victory in the DPRK Championships in 2021.

Later, Ri Chong Song was selected as one of the top 10 players of the country twice and received gold medals in many international events.

One of the top 10 players of the DPRK in 2023, Ri Chong Song earned three gold medals in the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in February this year.