sports

A national open paduk contest recently took place at the Taekwon-Do Palace under the sponsorship of the Korean Taekwon-Do Committee.

The nearly 20-day-long tournament attracted unusual attention and interest of many people.

“In the past paduk games were held divided into categories, fields and regions such as children's and amateur paduk contests, paduk competition in the educational field and Pyongyang municipal open paduk contest, or as an event of the martial arts games. But the recent contest had no limitations at all," said Ri Pong Il, deputy secretary general of the Korean paduk association.

The national open paduk contest was divided into children’s, schoolchildren’s, amateurs’ and open categories for the convenience of competitors and hundreds of amateur and professional paduk players selected from each province took part in it.

The players competed in dozens of events including individual, team, doubles and seven-person events.

All matches in the events of every category were fierce and thrilling, but most popular among them were those of the open category involving children, schoolchildren, amateurs and professional players.

In particular, the first-class mixed doubles and women's doubles of the open category were particularly interesting as they included families.

Ri Kwang Hyok, researcher at the Taekwon-Do Science Institute, and his six-year-old daughter Ri Ye Phyong and Kim Sol Hyang, a paduk instructor from South Hamgyong Province, and her five-year-old daughter U Jin A won the two events respectively.

"I could hardly express my joy when I won. For me, the moment will remain a pleasant memory forever, I think. I would like to thank the organizers for the special competition which helped us deepen the love between father and daughter and the feeling of attachment to the family and fired public enthusiasm for paduk," said Ri Kwang Hyok.

Meanwhile, men and women players of the paduk team of the Pyongyang Municipal Paduk Centre took the first place in the open-category men's and women's individual events which decided the top male and female players of the contest embracing all players in each category. The third placer of the women's individual event was surprisingly an amateur player, not a professional.

“The contest was a good occasion not only for boosting public interest in paduk, but also for further fuelling the players’ desire for and raising the level of competitions,” said Ri Pong Il.