In August last year there took place a national basketball tournament of power industrial workers in Pyongyang. The following is about a team from the East Pyongyang Thermal Power Station who took first place in the production section.
The workers are striving to boost power production.
Secret of Their Win
Experimenter Ri Yong Gwan has been long working in the metal laboratory of the plant. Ri is also the chief secretary of its non-permanent mass sports association. He was allowed to act as coach of the plant’s team in the basketball tournament. Having heard the news of the oncoming tournament, many people doubted if the team was able to win because there remained only two months for training before the tournament. Busy as he was guiding the team in training, he read and studied a number of sports magazines and books so as to map out his own unique tactics for the team. And he saw to it that all members of the team correctly carried out their training tasks to master movements required by his tactics. In addition, he inspired them to bear it in mind that they were the workers in charge of power production of the country. At last the team came back with a rotating trophy. When asked about the secret of their win, he replied: One surely wins if one believes in one’s strength.
Organizer Jong Pom
Jong Pom, who works in the turbine workshop, is a student of a study-while-working online college. Last year Jong played an important role in the endeavour to raise ef fi ciency of the turbines. As the captain of the basketball team of the plant, he acted as the team’s organizer during the tournament. He led the team just as the coach intended, organizing passes between backs and forwards so as to shift from district defence to prompt attack for a shot from beneath the basket or middle-or long-distance throws. In the final match with the team from the Pyongyang Thermal Power Complex, he scored another goal in cooperation with his forward No. 9 in only a few seconds before the end of the game, thus making a decisive contribution to the team’s victory. As soon as the game was over, the spectators, who had watched the game breathlessly, said in admiration, “The organizer is really extraordinary.
Master Shooter No. 9
Kim Kwang Hyok is a filter operator of the plant’s chemical workshop. It is only seven years since Kim began to work at the plant. He, however, played as an active forward in the tournament. With a keen sense of the ball, he looks like a professional player just when he runs dribbling the ball and throws in from beneath the basket or shoots the basket from middle-or long-distance. He succeeded in 60 or 70% of his shooting for three points during the tournament. He said he would take a large share in the en- deavour to introduce a new automatic filtration measuring system this year without slackening his high spirit displayed in the game.
Kim Won Bok, Kim Yong Il, An Kyong Chan, Rim Phyong Il, Cha Song Hwan and other members of the team are also workers of chemical, heat production, coal delivery and transportation workshops. Though young, all of them are innovators. They are still full of enthusiasm for making an active contribution to the production of electricity for the country by keeping themselves physically fit through steady mass sports activities.
Article: Sim Hyon Jin
