LookAtVietnam – A South Korean master has arrived in Viet Nam with high hopes for the country’s national taekwondo team this year.

Kim retired two years later and the Vietnamese team will be his first test as national coach, to lead Viet Nam past its Thailand rivals to grab as many gold medals as possible.

If he succeeds, his contract will be extended to prepare for the 16th Asian Games in China in 2010 and the 2012 London Olympics.

Viet Nam will host three events this year, including the Southeast Asian Youth Taekwondo Championship in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, a tournament for French speaking countries, and the world military competition in HCM City.

Most important, however, is to dominate at the Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December.

It is the first time the national team has had long-term training with a foreign expert. Previously, they received coaching about two months before big tournaments.

“A foreign expert is mandatory for the lead-up to an international tournament. I hope under his leadership the team, especially the women in lightweight categories, will produce high results,” Truong Ngoc De, general secretary of the Viet Nam Taekwondo Federation, said.

This year, the Korea International Cooperation Agency will send 10 trainers to work in Viet Nam with a view to upgrading the sport across the board at national and at local clubs.

Tipped to prevail

Apart from 16 categories in Laos, organisers decided to add poomsae (performance) events in which Viet Nam is tipped to prevail.

Unofficial information says there will be five performance events and each nation can compete in a maximum of three.

At the third World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship in Ankara, in late December, duo Nguyen Minh Tu and Nguyen Dinh Toan won golds in the 14-35 age group. Toan later took an individual silver in the 19-30 age group.

Southeast Asian Games defending champion Nguyen Van Hung also returns to the national team as assistant to Kim.

The five-time SEA champion retired from competition with a knee injury.

“His wide experience and high attainment will be useful to us,” Vu Xuan Thanh, head of the taewkondo department of the National Sports Administration, said.

Hung took part in world, Asian and Southeast Asian games, including twice at the Olympics in the under-84kg category.

Thanh said Hung’s move to coaching was typical of national teams throughout the world, for example Iran, where masters of Hung’s generation came to the end of their competition careers.

He added that youth training was the key to future attainment. Any team that did a good job with young martial artists would dominate the international competitions.

In the Southeast Asian Games, Viet Nam looks set to win up to five gold medals with hopes pinned on the poomsae team, Hoang Ha Giang (U47kg), Tran Thi Ngoc Truc (U51kg), Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu (U59kg) and Trinh Kim Tuong Van (63kg) on the women’s side and Nguyen Trong Cuong (U80kg) on the men’s side.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News