Vu Thi Huong.

‘Queen of Speed’ Vu Thi Huong

“Queen of Speed” honored the most outstanding athlete 2009

Great pressure on track-and-field athletes

Vu Thi Huong received the Labour Order, second class, for her outstanding performance in regional and international competitions last year.

“It is my great honour to receive the Order today. I myself think it is just a small contribution to the success of the national sport,” said Huong.

“I am really happy as my effort is recognised by the Government and State leaders. I hope I can do better in the future, especially to get a gold medal at the Asian Games this November in China,” she said.

Earlier, sprint queen Huong was honoured as one of Viet Nam’s ten outstanding youth in 2009 on Thursday in Ha Noi. Meanwhile para-swimmer Dang Van Cong received a certificate of merit for being one of five successful youth in 2009.

Huong was the only person at the awards, to be honoured as one of the best Asian sportspeople, by the Asian Athletics Association, for her record at Asian Indoor Games (AIG).

In the popular vote for Vietnamese athlete of the year, Huong topped the list of 15 for the first time after clocking in a record time of 7.24sec in the women’s 60m at the AIG.

Earlier at the Lao SEA Games last December, the Thai Nguyen-born athlete was awarded two gold medals for the 100 and 200m races and one silver in the 4×100m relay.

Just two weeks before the SEA Games began, the 24-year-old snatched two silvers in China at the Asian Athletics Championship.

Apart from Huong, 14 athletes of tracks and field, swimming, football, martial artists and other sports received the Labour Order, third class, yesterday together with five athletes with disabilities and 10 coaches.

Last year was a good year for athletes who pocketed a number of medals at the third Asian Indoor Games, the 25th Southeast Asian Games and the 5th Para Games last December.

As the host of the AIG, Viet Nam proved its sporting prowess after winning second place, with 43 gold, 30 silver and 22 bronze medals, behind powerhouse China.

Local athletes also performed better than expected at the SEA Games, standing second after Thailand after taking the fin swimming and martial arts competitions. At the end of the games the team’s tally stood at 83 gold, 75 silver and 57 bronze medals.

Special congratulations were also extended to Vietnamese athletes with disabilities who blew crowds away in swimming, track and field, weightlifting and table tennis competitions. They grabbed 73 golds, 57 silvers and 45 bronzes to place third finally.

VietNamNet/VNS