While Viet Nam’s hopes of winning an Asian Games
gold medal are slowly diminishing, Vu Thi Huong and Le Ngoc Phuong provided a
silver lining by qualifying for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m yesterday,
Nov 21, in Guangzhou.

Sprint queen: Viet Nam’s Vu Thi Huong ran 11.56sec to secure a semi-final berth in the women’s 100m event. — File Photo

The team failed to win
any medals on the ninth competition day, which comprised mainly of qualifying
rounds.

Huong, who has
dominated the Southeast Asian region for several years, had no problems in her
heat, finishing first with a time of 11.56sec, the third fastest of the day.

Fukushima Chisato of
Japan was the fastest woman with a time of 11.41sec.

Phuong competed in the
fourth heat and followed Huong into the next round with a strong finish,
clocking 11.85sec.

The semi-finals will
be run this afternoon with the two Vietnamese athletes, making their ASIAD
debuts this year, providing hope for their managers of bringing home a medal.

Huong, the Asian Games
indoor champion, is now one of the favourites for the event. At last December’s
SEA Games, she set a personal best of 11.34sec.

“I hope Huong will
compete to the best of her ability and snatch a medal. Her rivals from Japan,
India and especially hosts China are very strong.

“The Chinese athletes
are a bit of a mystery because I have found no information about them during
the whole year [before the Games],” said coach Nguyen Dinh Minh.

Her strongest rivals
will be Chisato with a personal best of 11.21sec and defending champion Guzel
Khubbieva of Uzbekistan who ran 11.54 sec yesterday.

At the previous ASIAD
in Qatar, Huong finished fourth with a time of 11.59sec.

Viet Nam’s Truong
Thanh Hang, the Asian Track and Field and SEA Games champion, will compete in
the women’s 800m and 1,500m tomorrow, Nov 23.

“It is an impossible
task for Hang ¨to win gold. I think the best she can hope for is a top three
finish,” said coach Ho Thi Tu Tam.

At the same time male
runner Nguyen Dinh Cuong will compete in the 800m and 1,500m events.

Cuong is not a
favourite this year as he faces tough competition against athletes with faster
personal and season’s bests.

Vietnamese Track and
Field Department managers have decided to award big bonuses for athletes who
bring home a medal.

In individual events,
a bonus of VND50-40-30 million will be awarded to gold-silver-bronze medallists
while a record bonus of VND100 million (US$5,000) will be awarded to winners of
a team gold, with VND75 million and VND50 million respectively, for silver and
bronze medallists.

In other news,
Vietnamese boxer Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai started the women’s 48-51kg category by
beating Macao’s Mak Kit I 7-1 yesterday at the Foshan Gymnasium. Mai will meet
Shymmoto Aya of Japan today.

Viet Nam’s quartet Le
Quang Liem, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Cao Sang and Nguyen Duc Hoa drew 2-2 with
Uzbekistan in the fourth round of the men’s team chess event while the women
lost 1.5-2.5 to India.

With 11 silver and 11
bronze medals, Viet Nam have dropped to 22nd place in the medals table.

Five Southeast Asian
teams have won gold at this year’s Games including Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News