Korea Training Asia’s Hockey Coaches

The scene is the finals of the men’s hockey events at the Al-Rayyan hockey field in Doha.

When the ending whistle blew, the Korean coach’s fist shot into the air, and the Chinese coach hung his head. Both are Korean. The coach of the Chinese women’s team that won the gold medal the day before was also Korean.

Korean Coaches are Sweeping Asian Hockey-

Coach Kim Chang-baek (51) of the Chinese women’s team led the team that gave China its first victory by preventing Korea’s fifth consecutive gold medal at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. He beat the Korean team once again this year in the preliminaries. Kim coached the Korean women’s team in 1999, and has coached the Chinese team since 2000. He is the “Guus Hiddink of Chinese hockey.”

The Chinese men’s team has also grown into a major force after bringing in Coach Kim Sang-ryul (51). At Doha, they did well, beating India for the first time in the history of Chinese men’s hockey, but were stopped by Korea. Coach Kim, who led the men’s team to a silver medal at the 2000 Sidney Olympics, coached the women’s team for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but after a placing of seventh place, moved to the Chinese team. Coach Kim said, “I had coached too long in Korea, and there were many qualified coaches, so I came to China.”

Coach Cho Sung-joon (45, Daewon High School) is a master coach who has achieved two consecutive Asian Games gold medals in men’s hockey. Coach Cho said, “My goal is to beat Coach Kim’s record of an Olympics silver medal.”

The war between Korean coaches at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be worth watching.

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