[Asian Games] Women’s Basketball Kang Yi-seul “It was Unfortunate that North Korean Players were Intentionally Harmed”
Kang Yi-seul (KB), who finished the North-South team ball game that was held for the first time at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games,
said, “I was a little upset because it seemed like the North Korean players were intentionally avoiding it.”
South Korea and North Korea played a women’s basketball group match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center gymnasium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on the 29th.
Kang Yi-seul
In the game, Korea won by a score of 81-62, but in fact, more attention was paid to the meeting between North and South Korea rather than the result. 바카라사이트
This is because women’s basketball is a sport that was played as a single team at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, the previous competition.
In Korea, Kang Yi-seul, Park Ji-soo (KB), and Park Ji-hyun (Woori Bank) were members of a single team at the time,
while North Korea’s coach Seong-sim Jeong, Ro Sook-young, and Kim Hye-yeon played as a single team in 2018.
After finishing the game, Kang Yi-seul said, “We talked about not turning away if (the opponent) falls,
but rather helping them up first.”
He added, “There weren’t many situations like that,
but I was a little upset because (the North Korean players) seemed to intentionally avoid them.” said.
North Korean Players
He added, “Still, there were a few players who played on the same team (in 2018),
it was disappointing that they intentionally did not make eye contact or did not give a high five at the end.”
Even outside the stadium, he said, “I ran into him a few times on the street,
but he didn’t look at me even when I called him.
The coach also avoided eye contact, so I thought, ‘I guess he’s not going to say hello.'”
In this day’s game, Korea was down by 10 points at the beginning of the second quarter,
but managed to come back and eventually regained the lead by over 20 points, winning by 19 points.
Kang Yi-seul explained, “Because it was a game against North Korea on Chuseok,
my mindset was different and I was nervous,” and “I put in a lot of effort in the beginning because I wanted to do well,
but as those things eased in the second half,
I was able to balance my shots.”
Park Ji-hyun also said, “There were some unique aspects as we met again after 5 years and played as opposing teams,
but I thought that many people would be showing their expectations and support during Chuseok,
I wanted to show a good performance.”
Park Ji-hyun added, “I had a bit of a hard time solving it in the beginning
because I didn’t have much information about North Korea,”
added, “Fortunately, I’m happy to be able to show you good results.”