North Korea gets weightlifting junior worlds despite doping

North Korea gets weightlifting junior worlds despite doping

PARIS (FRANCE) - North Korea will hold a rare global sports event when weightlifting's Junior World Championships come to town in 2018, the sport's governing body said Thursday, a day after punishing the reclusive country for doping.

The hosting of weightlifting's finest young talents in the 2018 Junior World Championships represents something of a coup for North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un

The last major international sports tournament to be held in the North was the world table tennis championship way back in 1979 and the hosting of weightlifting's finest young talents represents something of a coup for leader Kim Jong-Un.

Kim -- an avid sports fan -- wants to turn North Korea into a sporting powerhouse and it has enjoyed sustained success at Olympic level through the years in weightlifting.

"Choosing among five strong candidates, the IWF executive board allocated the hosting right of the 2018 Junior World Championships to Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the International Weightlifting Federation said in a statement.

North Korea made a failed bid to host the 2017 world weightlifting juniors, which was awarded to Japan.

Its success this time comes despite the IWF on Wednesday hitting North Korea with sanctions ahead of the Rio Olympics for what it called "multiple positive cases (of doping) in the qualification period (for the Games)".

As a result the North is to lose two places in weightlifting in Rio.

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