Topic: Korea stuff

[Shaun Le Conte]

Some photos of the (south) Korean National Team, including Jang Mi-Ran, women's 75kg+ champion.

The indoor photos are in their Olympic training center in Seoul, and the outdoor photo is of their national team in Doha for the Asian Games. I can read much Korean, but the banner in the Doha photo says "Dae-Ha-Min-Guk Yeok-do, Hoa-ee-ting!" (Republic of Korea Weightlifting Team, Fighting!)

The photos are from the news bulletins of the Korean Weightlifting Federation web site http://weightlifting.sports.or.kr/weight/index.jsp and I'll remove them at their request :)

[Shaun Le Conte]

I'll try to identify some of the others

The first name is the family name

Lee Jong Hoon, he's on the far right of the banner squatting down in the Asian Games photo, and the guy with the longer hair in the indoor team photo. He's 5'1, 56 kg and has medaled in the past two world championships and Asian Games (280 kg total). He's the highest ranked male weightlifter on the team. I was hoping to meet this guy and see him train. Alas, it was not to be.

On the left side of the banner is Ji Hun-Min, he's in the 62 kg class, 5'2" with a total of 287.5 in last year's worlds

In the back row, to the left of Jang Mi-Ran is Kim Seon Jong, 5'8", 85 kg class who won bronze in last year's Asian Games with a 355 kg total, and he jerked 195 kg in last year's worlds

In the back row, to the right of the two women is Lee Jeong Jae, 5'5", 77 kg, who totalled 341 kg last year at the Asians and 337 kg at the Worlds.

Front row, the other guy holding the small English banner is Kim Sun Bae, 5'4", 69 kg who is a newcomer and junior last year who totalled 307.5 at the Asian Games

The heaviest guy in the back right is Kim Wha Seung, 5'10.5", 105 kg, who totalled 376 kg at the Asians and 355 at the World Juniors in 2005

The other "tall" guy at the back is Lee Ung Jo, 5'9.5", 94 kg he totalled 370 kg at the Asian Games for silver, and 360 kg at last year's Worlds

In the front left, first woman is Kim Mi Kyung, 5'5", 69 kg, 223 kg total at the Asians. She's been around for years and competed at the Savannah World Juniors

Second woman in front is Kim Soo Kyung, 5'3", 63 kg, 214 kg total at the Asians, 222 kg at the Worlds last year for 4th place

The woman in front middle is Yoon Jin Hee, 5'3", 58 kg, 215 kg total at the Asians and 212 kg at last year's Worlds. She was a medallist at the World Juniors in 2005. This is the other lifter I would have liked to meet 

The woman at the back middle is Kim Soon Hee, 5'5", 75 kg, 246 kg total for silver at Asians, 243 kg at the Worlds, 250 kg at the Olympics (2004), 240 kg in Sydney Olympics and consistently in the 240 range since 1999 when she won silver at the Worlds with 242.5 kg. She's the most veteran lifter on the national team.

I can't find the coaches info.

I'm tired now, I hope that was interesting to somebody, lol :)

[Shaun Le Conte]

I edited this video of the 53 kg world champion in the snatch, Yoon Jin Hee using television footage. I wrote the description and title in Korean in hopes of drawing one of their lifters to the video and replying to it, if only to correct what I wrote (I admit, the grammar and vocab could be wrong, I did the best I could). I feel kind of bad that I didn't make more of my time in Korea and get a chance to see their national training center even though I was invited to see it. But I lived 5 hours away. I should have lived in Seoul instead of Busan. They have such a good team.

Anyway, here is the video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xJGHLhnJVFs

[Shaun Le Conte]

In their national training center, I don't recognize the lifters. Maybe they are juniors. Rapid fire front squats. Video from tv.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jnTHVAt_AhA

[Shaun Le Conte]

Here's another video I borrowed from Korean news channel web sites, this time featuring Yoon Jin-Hee (Jenny) in the 53 kg class and Sa Jae-Hyeok, 77 kg class. Yoon was gold medallist in the snatch this year, and Sa was a medallist in the C&J. I have a crush on Miss Jenny Yoon. The video at its source requires some plugins to your browser that aren't usually on people's computers, so here it is.

Let me know if this stuff isn't interesting because it will save me some time :P

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VaD76g1vViE

[Alex Carter]

I enjoy them very much, I'm ChevellePantera on youtube, those are awesome videos man would love to see a training  tape of Sa Jae Hyeok

[Rob Macklem]

Shaun,
Good stuff...the Koreans train with a good deal of intensity...I didn't get to see them train in Chiang Mai, but saw them quite a bit in 2006 and 2003. They are tough.
I was surprised NOT to see their friendly coach from 2003 and 2006 in Chiang Mai, he speaks a little english.
Do you know his name???

[Shaun Le Conte]

I've never met him but if he speaks English then I believe I have spoken to him by phone. I was always to refer to him as Mr. Ka. He's in some photos with a name tag but the photos are too fuzzy for me to read his tag. If only the photos were taken with your camera :)