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| Japan's Momoko Takahashi (R), Vietnam's Vu Thi Huong (C) and Uzbekistan's Guzel Khubbieva run their women's 100m final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, Guangdong province last month - Photo: Reuters |
Vietnamese track-and-field athletes showed some excellent performances at the 16th Asian Games (ASIAD) in Guangzhou, China last month, taking home three silvers and two bronzes. Huong, along with fellow runners Truong Thanh Hang and Vu Van Huyen, were all nominated for Vietnam’s top 10 outstanding athletes.
Vu Thi Huong from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, who won Best Athlete of 2009, secured the second consecutive title by making history for Vietnam athletics at ASIAD by winning Vietnam’s first ever medal at the games - a bronze medal in the women’s 100m event. She also won a silver in the 200m race.
Huong beat Hang to the title as she picked up 1,213 points, while Hang, who grasped two silver medals in the ASIAD in the women’s 800m and 1500m events, came second with 1,208 points.
Though athlete Le Bich Phuong won the only gold medal for Vietnam at ASIAD in the women’s karate 55kg category, she came third with 1,047 points.
The other winners in the top 10 were the world’s number seven badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh (631 points), track and field athlete Vu Van Huyen (582 points), chess player Le Quang Liem (558 points), weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan (331 points), shooter Ha Minh Thanh (274 points), wrestler Le Thi Lua (257 points), and swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc (218).
For contributing to the track and field team’s great victory last year, coach Ho Thi Tu Tam from Danang Sports Training Center was voted Coach of the Year 2010 with 463 points, beating Karate head coach Le Cong from the Army team and track and field coach Nguyen Dinh Minh from HCMC, who won second and third places with 395 and 376 points respectively
Meanwhile, shooting coach Nguyen Thi Nhung from the General Department of Sports and Physical Training earned fourth position with 167 points, followed by chess coach Lam Minh Chau from HCMC with 138 points.
Swimmer Vo Thanh Tung from HCMC, who won a gold and a silver at the 2010 Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China, won the best para-athlete award with 550 points, while badminton coach Le Thuy Ha received the nomination for most outstanding coach for disabled athletes in the vote by journalists and sports experts with 332 points.
Hundreds of sports experts and journalists from Hanoi, HCMC and Danang voted over the weekend for the top 10 athletes, top five coaches, top five para-athletes and top three para-athletes’ coaches.
The annual vote was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Vietnam Fund for Supporting Young Talent and The Thao Viet Nam (Vietnam Sports) newspaper.
