, just when Pakistan would have wanted to push on. Azam picke

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Despite claiming only two gold medals in Rio, North Korea is as determined as ever to fulfill one of leader Kim Jong Uns primary goals: to become an international sports superpower.North Koreas small Olympic team won its two golds in weightlifting, where it has a number of world-class and world-record-holding lifters, and gymnastics. Weightlifter Rim Jong Sim won the gold in the womens 75-kilogram division, while gymnast Ri Se Gwang won the mens vault. The North also won three silver and two bronze medals.When our Rim Jong Sim stood on the podium with our national anthem playing, she cried and my mother and I cried, too, as we watched on TV, Ri Yun Gum, an 18-year-old government worker, said Monday in Pyongyang as the Rio games were coming to a close. I think our athletes are able to win not just because they train hard, but because of their mental toughness.The performance was a tad shy of expectations, since North Korea had four golds in London.But transforming North Korea, which has very limited economic resources and a population of only about 25 million, into a player to be reckoned with on the global sports stage is one of Kims pet projects, and he has poured funds into the development and training of promising athletes over the past several years.It has already made a visible mark on Pyongyang.The relatively affluent capital has seen the rise of a number of major new or renovated sports venues, and each year its usually restricted streets are opened for the Pyongyang Marathon, which has become a major tourist attraction. Though pickup volleyball games and football matches in schoolyards have long been a staple in the city, its now a common sight to see young people out jogging or even canoeing on the two main rivers that run through Pyongyang.And while South Korea lets its top athletes get out of military service as a gold medal reward, elite athletes returning home to the North after winning international competitions often get a heros welcome -- and maybe a condo.Of course, Pyongyangs push to garner international prestige and generate national pride by winning medals isnt terribly original. It appears to have been pulled straight out of the playbook of former Soviet bloc countries like East Germany, and is similar to the strong political significance sports are still given in Russia and China, North Koreas two biggest historical backers.But the campaign is also seen as part of Kims effort to make North Korea a more modern nation.There are two reasons why sports are important, Jang Sok Ha, manager of the newly opened Pyongyang Sports Equipment Factory, told The Associated Press on Monday. People in good health can work harder, but they also need cultural rest and recreation.Jangs sparkling new factory, which opened in April, is a big part of the drive and is one of the largest in the country. Its task is to provide regular people affordable sports equipment -- from soccer balls to badminton rackets.Standing in the factory showroom, surrounded by everything from field hockey balls to judo uniforms and bags of talcum powder for weightlifters, Jang proudly produced a basketball signed by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, one of the only foreigners to ever meet with Kim. He then grabbed a ball emblazoned with Naesongsan, his factorys brand.Our balls are good enough to be used by the NBA, too, he said.North Koreans are able to follow the Olympics, or at least some selected events, on TV and radio broadcasts and in newspapers, all of which are run by the state.I watched the games every day, said housewife Hong Un Byol, 34. I was so happy to see our national flag raised after the gold medals. The athletes practiced a lot to give pleasure to the Marshal. Kim is often respectfully referred to by that title, one of the many that he holds.Beyond the playing field, sports have from time to time provided brief respites in the normally tense relations between the two Koreas.During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, North and South Koreans marched together under a flag that symbolized unification. North Koreas womens soccer team won gold at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, with the South winning bronze. Many South Koreans delighted in seeing players from both countries celebrate together after the medal ceremony.While such sentiments were generally absent during the Rio Olympics, one of the most touching moments came when gymnasts Hong Un Jong of North Korea and Lee Eun-ju of South Korea met on the sidelines during their event and posed together smiling for a selfie. Photos of their warm moments delighted many South Koreans and provided a rare note of concord in otherwise abysmal relations between the rivals.Officially, however, both countries frown on such meetings.The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because there has been no peace treaty signed to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War. Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea in what Seoul and Washington claim is a necessary deterrent to any threats from North Korea. Turning up the heat, the U.S. and South Korea just kicked off annual war games that Pyongyang says are a prelude to invasion.Games or no games, accusations against the South of trying to create trouble -- not of hugging gymnasts -- are what dominate the headlines here.---Talmadge is the APs Pyongyang bureau chief. Doug Rader Jersey . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Houston Astros Gear . -- Arizona raced out to a big lead and did not back off, hitting the accelerator instead. https://www.cheapastros.com/773o-chris-devenski-jersey-astros.html . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Derek Bell Astros Jersey .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Rogelio Armenteros Astros Jersey .1 million pounds ($61.2 million) on Saturday, giving the beleaguered English Premier League champions a major lift. Pakistan 308 for 6 (Azam 117, Azhar 101, Joseph 2-62) beat West Indies 172 (Ramdin 37, Nawaz 3-40, Wahab 2-28) by 136 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBabar Azam became the third Pakistan player - and eighth overall - to score three consecutive ODI centuries as he top-scored with a 106-ball 117 in Pakistans commanding 136-run victory over West Indies in Abu Dhabi. The win completed Pakistans 3-0 sweep of the ODI series and enabled them to displace West Indies at No. 8 in the ODI rankings.Azam put on a run-a-ball 147 for the second wicket with captain Azhar Ali, who scored a century of his own to become the only Pakistan player to score three hundreds as ODI captain. The top-order hundreds formed the backbone of Pakistans total of 308 for 6, a score that looked beyond West Indies almost from the start of their scratchy, plodding reply.The margin of victory could have been even bigger had Pakistans middle- and lower-order batsmen fully capitalised on the strong launchpad provided by Azam and Azhar. Pakistan had moved to 232 for 2 by the time their partnership had been broken in the 39th over; they added just 76 runs thereafter, as successive batsmen struggled to find their timing on a slowing wicket and against an older ball. The last ten overs of Pakistans innings yielded only two boundaries, one of which was possible only thanks to a lazy misfield by Evin Lewis at deep backward square.But if the end of Pakistans innings appeared anti-climactic, it was still lively compared to the dreary run-chase that followed. Showing an inability to rotate the strike, against pace and spin alike, West Indies batsmen got stuck and never approached the run rate required to mount a genuine challenge. By the end of the 30th over, West Indies had soaked up 112 dot balls - as many as Pakistan had faced in their entire innings - and were wallowing in the gloom of impending defeat with the score 119 for 5. Their limp effort continued thereafter as the match drifted towards its inevitable conclusion.On a flat pitch that became slower and more sluggish over time, the best time for batting was at the very start. Having won the toss, Pakistan batted first - for the third time in a row - and made the most of the good conditions early on, racing along to 36 off the first four overs. Opening bowlers Azarri Joseph and Shannon Gabriel clocked up speeds in excess of 140 kph - Gabriel hit the late 140s several times - but could not quite find the control to mmatch.dddddddddddd Sharjeel Khan was characteristically strong square of the wicket, while Azhar showed nice touch, flicking through midwicket, driving down the ground and playing a commanding cut past backward square.The introduction of Kraigg Brathwaite and Jason Holder slowed the tempo of Pakistans innings somewhat, before Sunil Narine and Sulieman Benn helped West Indies regain a greater measure of control, stifling the batsmen with their lack of pace and disciplined lines. Benn was rewarded in his second over when Sharjeel lost patience and hit a well-flighted delivery straight to Joseph at long-on. With the spinners continuing to exert the squeeze, Azhar and Azam meandered along, bringing up the teams 100 in the 20th over. But as the partnership got going, the runs began to flow again. Once Azam was set, he found the gaps with increasing ease. Azhar used the sweep and slog-sweep with great effectiveness against Benn. Pakistans second 100 runs came off just 83 balls.It was Holder who ended their partnership when Azhar, batting on 101, played a tired heave across the line of a slower ball that clipped the top of off stump. Shoaib Malik was dismissed by Narine next over as West Indies began to pull things back for the second time in the innings, just when Pakistan would have wanted to push on. Azam picked up ones and twos as he approached his century, but, with only three wickets down, Pakistan would have wanted rather more than that.Azam departed off the last ball of the 46th over, looking to paddle-sweep a yorker-length ball from Kieron Pollard, only to find his leg stump disturbed. Pakistan were 280 for 4 with four overs remaining. They added another 28, but the late charge towards which they had been building never actually materialised.It didnt need to. West Indies openers, Lewis and Kraigg Brathwaite, started steadily, putting on 45 off 56 balls before Lewis, on ODI debut, was bowled around his legs by Sohail Khan. That partnership turned out to be the biggest of West Indies innings, as wickets fell regularly thereafter. A 42-run sixth-wicket partnership between Holder and Denesh Ramdin was the only other stand of substance, but it came after the match was all but lost. Once Imad Wasim broke that stand, the end came quickly, with the last five wickets falling for the addition of just 13 runs. ' ' '