LookAtVietnam – Nguyen Dang Duc Bao successfully defended his title at the Tien Phong (The Vanguard) newspaper tournament in Nha Trang yesterday.

Numero uno: Nguyen Dang Duc Bao successfully defends his title at the Tien Phong newspaper tournament in Nha Trang yesterday.

The exciting finish saw the 26-year-old runner with a nearly ten second gap over runner-up Nguyen Van Sy from Thanh Hoa. Third place Phung Manh Dung came in at 32.40 to help keep his Khanh Hoa team on the ranking table.

“The result was similar to my practise times before the tournament. I am very happy to defend my individual title and first position for the whole team,” said Bao.

“Actually, it was not easy to win this race but I had great home support and am used to running in the hot weather, two of many advantages I enjoy when competing in my home town,” he added.

The second place title in the team event went to the Military, while Gia Lai came in third.

On the women’s side, Le Thi Hang from Thanh Hoa Province enjoyed victory with a time of 17:07.51 in the 5km professional race.

Hang took advantage of the fact that defending champion Truong Thanh Hang did not compete after becoming a free agent last month.

However, she said: “Truong Thanh Hang is a fierce rival but I believe I could beat her to take the first gold medal of my career.

“I have been in marathon training for three years but I failed in the previous two Tien Phong races. Ever since, I have promised myself that I would win and I tried my best today.

“I think that I am worthy to take the victory because I practised very hard. The winning is great,” Hang said.

Although Thanh Hoa were considered a strong team, Hang’s top place was not enough for them to pocket the team title which went to Thai Binh whose Bui Thi Hien and Nguyen Thi Huong came second and third respectively.

Amateur and youth athletes also had the chance to compete yesterday.

Military team member Bui The Anh grabbed gold in the men’s youth 7km event with a time of 22:40.31. He was followed by Duong Van Thai from Nam Dinh and Nguyen Van Minh of Binh Dinh.

Nguyen Dang Thanh Thuy added another gold to Khanh Hoa with her 3km youth race win. The two runners-up were Nguyen Thi Ha Trang and Vu Thi Tinh, both from Quang Ninh Province.

Team Lam Dong proved their power in the men’s 7km amateur event when their Doan Ngoc Hoang took the top position with 24.13. Hanoian Luong Van Nhat was second, two seconds slower. Dac Lac’s Truong Hong Huu came in third with 24.19.

Meanwhile Vinh Phuc dominated the women’s amateur 3km race with two berths in the top three. Vu Thi Hang won the gold medal while Hoang Thi Ly took bronze. The silver went to Vuong My Loc from HCM City.

Half-marathon races were also held for the first time to celebrate the 50th edition of the event.

Khanh Hoa’s Nguyen Vinh Thien and Thai Binh’s Pham Thi Hien took gold medals in the men’s and women’s events respectively. The two well-known national tournament runners did not face worthy rivals yesterday. They separated from the other runners after the first 10km and ran alone to the finish line.

Hien blamed exhaustion on the hot weather, resulting in a final result that was not as good as planned. However, she said the marathon is a tough sport and the weather is part of it, so she needed to overcome everything to win.

The 50th National Marathon Race attracted nearly 250 athletes from 30 teams all over Viet Nam.

The event, which was funded by Indochina Airlines, is the biggest of its kind in Viet Nam. It carried a total prizes exceeding VND120 million (US$6,800) for event winners.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News