South Korean shooting coach behind Vietnam's Olympic gold medal declines contract extension

Park has refused to attend contract negotiations scheduled for Tuesday with the administration. He sent it an email to inform his decision to leave the Vietnam national shooting team for personal reasons, after 10 years of working here.

On Sept. 12, the administration sent an email offering a contract extension with Park until the end of next year, with him focusing on the pistol team, including Trinh Thu Vinh, who finished fourth in the 10m women's air pistol at the 2024 Paris Olympics and Pham Quang Huy, the gold medalist in the 10m men's air pistol at the 2022 Asian Games. His target is to win three gold medals at the 2025 SEA Games, one to two gold medals at the 2026 Asian Games and one gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

With the new contract, Park is expected to maintain his salary of $6,000 plus $300 for food expense per month. He is the second highest-paid foreign expert in Vietnamese sports, excluding football, after South Korean archery expert Park Chae-soon with $8,000 a month. The salary is paid by the administration, mainly from the state budget.

One of the reasons for Park's decision not to take the deal is the way the administration and the Vietnam Shooting Federation handled it. Park said his contract expired on Aug. 31, but was only contacted about an extension on Sept. 12.

The administration report to the sports ministry that it had contacted Park on Aug. 28 about the contract extension but received no response.

Park, 58, has worked for the Vietnam national shooting since 2015. He helped the team qualify for the Olympics in the last three editions. His best achievement was helping Hoang Xuan Vinh win the gold medal in the 10m pistol and silver medal in the men's 50m air pistol at Rio Olympics 2016. At the 2022 Asian Games, he helped Pham Quang Huy win the men's 10m air pistol, the first gold medal of Vietnamese shooting at the event.

Vietnam has hired around 25 to 30 foreign managers since 2018, with South Koreans dominating at 23%, according to the administration.

There is still a shortage of good experts in many sports, such as fencing, weightlifting, wrestling, taekwondo, women's football and gymnastics because the budget often does not meet the salary requirements during contract negotiations, it said.