day of the competition in Guangzhou, China on Nov. 24.
Defending champion Vu Thi Nguyet Anh failed to keep her karate title in
the women's under-50kg class after losing 0-2 to host rival Li Hong in
the final clash.
Anh met no difficulty on her way to the
final as she dominated three rivals from Iran , Chinese Taipei and the
Republic of Korea . However Anh, who recently recovered from an
injury, was unable to surpass Li.
Valentina Velena of India and Yasina Torrattanawathana of Thailand each walked away with bronze.
Another Vietnamese defending champion lost their crown on Nov. 24 in
the sepak takraw regu final after a 15-21, 21-14, 11-15 defeat to
Thailand , which is known to have the world's strongest competitors.
Sepak takraw was one of Vietnam 's highest hopes for Asian Games
gold, but as with several other sports, they failed to reach their
target.
Before leaving for Guangzhou , the Vietnam
sport delegation set a target of winning four to six titles to put them
within the world's top 20 strongest countries. But now that the Games
are only three days away from over and most of Vietnam 's strongest
athletes have already finished with their competitions, the target seems
far out of reach.
Track and field athletes are currently the country's best hope for top honours.
Southeast Asia's fastest woman, Vu Thi Huong, won a berth in the 200m final with a time of 24.05sec in Nov. 24's semis.
Huong's teammate Truong Thanh Hang will kick off her second final
competition later on the afternoon of Nov. 25 in the women's 800m event.
Hang, who won silver on Nov. 23 in the 1,500m, is
expected to reach even higher in the 800m as she has practised a lot for
this event.
She will face Magarita Matsko of Kazakhstan , Tintu Lukka from India and Bahrain 's Isa Jamal Maryam Yusuf.
On the men's side, iron man Vu Van Huyen on Nov. 24 took part in five
events of the men's decathlon. He earned 4,002 points to rank fourth,
some 243 points less than the leading athlete.
Women's
chess masters are another final hope for Vietnam , as they entered
the semi-final round with eight points after seven matches.
Karate artists will also share the heavy task of seeking gold in the final competition of the Games.
Six fighters are set to compete in the last three days of the event,
including two-time SEA Games champions Bui Thi Trieu in the women's
under-61kg category, Nguyen Ngoc Thanh in the men's 67kg pool and Le
Bich Phuong who won a gold in the women's 55kg class at the Indonesia
Open.
The delegation has won 14 silver, 12 bronze medals and is ranked 26th./.
