Vietnam won only two silver and three bronze medals at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship, held at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium through July 4.

Vietnam won only two silver and three bronze medals at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship, held at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium through July 4.

“Vietnamese track-and-field athletes are heroes”

‘Queen of Speed’ Vu Thi Huong

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong won a bronze medal for women’s 3000m running.

This is the first time Vietnam has hosted the regional event. Using this high-quality playground, Vietnam has a chance to review its capabilities.

Sports experts agreed that participating countries sent their best athletes to Vietnam. Most were born in 1991-1992 but the most outstanding athletes at this tournament like Qatar’s Barshim Mutaz Essa, China’s Zhang Guowei (men’s high jump), Japan’s Shibata Haruka (women’s 400m hurdle), Taiwan’s Lee Yen Lin (men’s 100m hurdle), China’s Sun Yan (women’s triple jump), Qatar’s Al Mannai Mohd.Ahmed R A (men’s decathlon), are said to be on par with Asia’s top athletes.

Two Asian records were made by young sportsmen at this tournament. High-jumper Barshim Mutaz Essa made a 2.31m record, breaking Chinese Liu Yang’s 2.23m record in 2004. Sports analysts remarked that, with this record, Barshim Mutaz Essa will become one of the world’s best athletes in the near future.

The second record was made by Taiwan’s Lee Yen Lin in the men’s 110m hurdle category, with 13.90 second, breaking China’s Shi Dongpeng’s record in 2001 (14.05 seconds).

The tournament showed the progress of Asian track-and-field, but it also reveals challenges for Vietnam: without proper investment, Vietnam will lose its position in categories like women’s medium-distance running and men’s and women’s high jumps.

General referee of the Asian Youth Athletics Championship Duong Duc Thuy commented that Thailand sent a strong team to Vietnam and they played impressively.

“I’m very worried for the Vietnamese national track-and-field team at future Southeast Asian Games when our current outstanding athletes like Truong Thanh Hang, Vu Thi Huong say goodbye to athletics,” Thuy added.

Sports experts believe that Vietnam needs to work out a long-term development strategy for track-and-field quickly and implement it immediately.

Vietnam won two silver and three bronze medals at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship, including a women’s high jump silver medal for Tran Hue city Hoa, a bronze medal for women’s 3000m running for Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, a bronze medal for women’s 800m running for Do Thi Thao, a silver medal for women’s 4×400m relay and a bronze medal for women’s heptathlon for Bui Thi Thu Thao.

PV