Bodybuilder Nguyen Van Lam, who recently won the Asian gold medal in Thailand, bid farewell to HCM City because he was not paid for months.

Bodybuilder Nguyen Van Lam.

The chief of the weightlifting and bodybuilding division under the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the chairman of the HCM City Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Association met with Lam on August 24 to convince him to stay with HCM City. However, the bodybuilder still decided to leave HCM City as of September 2009.

Lam said since October 2008, when he joined the national team, HCM City stopped paying him over 1 million dong for cooking. He said his family is in financial difficulty because they have to rent a house, nurse a baby and themselfes pay for Lam’s meals (nutritious requirement for bodybuilders is very high). After Lam had asked for help, the HCM City Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Association paid him 2 million dong for rent to a house. The bodybuilder said he has supported his family with the 5 million dong the national team paid him for a long period of time.

Lam, from the southern province of Dong Nai, said he hasn’t decided which team he will join after leaving HCM City.

HCM City’s sports officials said that they will report this case to the local Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Lam has been a member of the HCM City team for nearly ten years and he has won many medals at home and abroad. In 2007, he took an Asian silver medal and a world bronze medal. In 2008, he got a gold medal for men’s 65kg category at the Asian Beach Games 1 in Indonesia. Early this month, he won an Asian gold medal for men’s 65kg category in Thailand.

Previously, bodybuilder Pham Van Mach and Duong Tai left HCM City to An Giang and Binh Duong. Recently, the Southeast Asian champion for women’s 800m running Truong Thanh Hang also said goodbye to HCM City.

VietNamNet/VNE