Country North Korea Name Kim Kum-ok Team April 25 Sports Club McCune–Reischauer Kim Kumok Weight 48 kg | Revised Romanization Gim Geumok Height 1.6 m Choson'gul 김금옥 Role Runner Events Marathon | |
 | ||
Born December 9, 1988 (age 35) ( 1988-12-09 ) | ||
Kim Kum-ok ([kim.ɡɯ.mok̚] or [kim] [kɯ.mok̚]; born December 9, 1988) is a female long-distance runner from North Korea, who specializes in the half marathon and marathon events. She represents the April 25 Sports Team.
Kim ran in the Pyongyang Marathon in 2006 and took third with a time of 2:29:25. She improved for the 2007 edition, setting a marathon personal best of 2:26:56 to take second place. She had her first success at collegiate level, winning the half marathon at the 2007 Summer Universiade. Having won at the age of eighteen, the win was North Korea's second ever title at the Universiade. She ran at the Beijing Marathon later that year and managed tenth place.
At the Hong Kong Marathon, she had her first victory over the distance. She represented North Korea at the 2008 Summer Olympics and took twelfth place in the Olympic marathon race. The following year she returned to the Pyongyang Marathon and finished second again, this time to Phyo Un-suk. She ran at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics later that year and finished in twentieth place in the World Championship marathon race with a time of 2:31:24 (the best performer of the North Korean team). She ended her 2009 season by running a half marathon best of 1:11:55 to win at the 2009 East Asian Games.
In her fourth attempt at the course, Kim won the Pyongyang Marathon in 2:27:34, running her second fastest ever marathon and seeing off two-time champion Jong Yong-ok to take the honours.