The Vietnam National Sports Administration will select the most outstanding 60 athletes from 10 sports for major sponsorship this year.

Top swimmer Nguyen Huu Viet.

Each athlete will be sponsored to the tune of at least US$10,000, which should cover the cost of medicines and training for the Asian Games and the Olympics.

At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, women’s taekwondo artist Tran Hieu Ngan won a silver medal, the country’s first at the games.

Vietnam sent 11 sportsmen to the Athens Olympics in 2004 but failed to win a medal.

However, in the Beijing Olympics 2008, weight lifter Hoang Anh Tuan received a silver medal in the men’s 56kg class.

Vietnam hopes to bag between four to six gold medals and to finish in the top 15 at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, later this year.

PV