LookAtVietnam – Vietnamese judokas won five gold medals, six silvers and 18 bronzes to come in second in the 18th HCM City International Judo Championships which ended yesterday, July 5.

South Korea was third with three gold medals, four silvers and eight bronze.

The last day of competition was highly successful for the Vietnamese judokas who won three more gold medals and 11 bronzes.

Dang Le Bich Van, who was third at Manila’s 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, collected gold in the under-45kg category when she defeated Laotian Phanouvong Mayouly by the Golden Score rule after preventing her opponent from scoring for five minutes.

The most impressive victories of the second day came from Van Thi Kim Thoa in the women’s under-52kg category and Dang Hao in the men’s under-100kg category.

Thoa started the match strongly, taking an offensive approach towards her opponent, Mayu Ameiya, who was a favourite for the title in this category, by an ippon point only two minutes into the match to bag a gold medal.

Superior skills

Dang Hao demonstrated his superior skills throughout the tournament.

He beat all his opponents by ippon points before finally beating Kouki Ishimoto, of Japan, in the final.

In the previous day of competition, Huynh Nhat Thong and Ho Ngan Giang in the men’s under-55kg and women’s under-60kg category, respectively, took gold for Viet Nam.

The two-day tournament event attracted about 200 judokas from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Hong Kong, Thailand, France and Viet Nam who competed in 16 events.

Last year, Viet Nam was third with a gold, three silver and 11 bronze medals.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News