VietNam Culture

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Heineken Stars hosts international tennis greats

HCMC - Vietnamese tennis fans can watch four top international players play for US$80,000 in prize money at Phu Tho Indoor Sports Center in HCMC at the Heineken Stars 2010 on October 1 and 2.

David Nalbandian of Argentina, ranked 33rd in the world; world No. 252 Tommy Haas of Germany; world No.22 Sam Querrey and world No.102 Robby Ginepri of the U.S. will play in two playoff matches for places in the final.

David Nalbandian, former World No. 3, currently ranks 33rd in the world. He was champion in ATP Tour Washington 2010 and he was runner up in the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.

Tommy Haas, who reached a career-high ranking of world No.2 in 2002, currently ranks 252nd in the world. The German player was a 2009 Wimbledon quarterfinalist.

Sam Querrey is a professional American tennis player. As of August, he was the fourth-highest ranked American. This year he reached his career high as No. 19. Querrey, currently seeded 22nd in the world, was winner of the Serbia Open 2010.

Meanwhile, Robby Ginepri, currently 102nd in ATP rankings was the winner of the ATP Tour Indianapolis 2009. He reached a career-best of world No.15 in 2005.

After the first two round knockout matches at 5p.m. on Friday, the two finalists will battle for the title at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, the organizers told a press conference in HCMC on Wednesday.

The champion will receive a cash prize of US$40,000, while the runner-up will take home US$20,000, with prizes of US$10,000 each going to the remaining players.

Besides playing competitive tennis, the four international stars will also be meeting lots of fans at the venue before the matches.

This is the third time the Heineken Stars has taken place in Vietnam. The second tournament in 2008 also had the participation of four stars: Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Robin Soderling and Mardy Fish. Tsonga was the champion after defeating Soderling.

The 2006 tournament saw Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, and Rainer Schuettler and Nicolas Kiefer of Germany battle it out with Schuettler taking the championship.

The Heineken Stars 2010 is being organized by the Vietnam Tennis Federation in conjunction with Heineken’s local manufacturer Vietnam Brewery Ltd., and locally based TLT Sports Marketing.

Tickets cost VND800,000, VND500,000 and VND250,000 for all matches and are available at Nguyen Du Indoor Stadium, 143 Nguyen Du Street, District 1 or (0908 212 962), TLT Sports Marketing, 63A, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1 (0983 799 924 or 0908 324 819), Phu Tho Gymnasium, 1 Lu Gia Street, District 11 and Thong Nhat Stadium, 30 Nguyen Kim Stress, District 10, HCMC.

N.Korea go top, hosts Vietnam suffer loss at Millennium Football Cup

HCMC – The Vietnamese national squad lost 0-2 to the U23 Australian squad in the second game of the 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup 2010 at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on Wednesday while North Korea defeated Kuwait U23 1-0, securing the top spot in the four-team tournament in the earlier game.

The Vietnamese side began the game with a changed lineup after a 3-0 win over Kuwait U23 in their opener. Nguyen Dinh Luat made his debut at the tournament, replacing defender Doan Viet Cuong from the beginning.

The Australian, with height-advantage, put more attacks from the start of the game in search of a goal and their players dominated the ball possession in the first half.

The visitors also created some good chances in the first minutes while the Vietnamese defenders made many mistakes. The Australian players exploited the mistakes from defenders Vu Nhu Thanh and Nguyen Phuoc Tu as Michael Hoffman opened the score for his team in the 19th minute.

Australia U23 continuously dominated the game after the goal and James Rodney broke the offside trap before beating goalie Duong Hong Son at the near post in the 36th minute.

In the second half, coach Henrique Calisto made some key changes when Xuan Thanh made his debut, replacing Nguyen Quang Hai in the first minutes of the second half. Nguyen Trong Hoang, who scored the goal for the Vietnamese side in the opener, replaced Nguyen Viet Thang in the 69th minute.

Although the Vietnamese players had the most possession over the second half and managed to create dozens of chances, the Australian side defense resiliently held out to keep a clean sheet. Despite good ball possession, the Vietnamese forwards failed to score.

In the earlier game on Wednesday, North Korea secured the second victory after beating Kuwait U23 1-0. An Chol Hyok scored only goal for his team in the 71st minute.

With the victory, North Korea secured the top spot with six points as they earned two wins in the round-robin tournament. The eastern Asian side beat Australia U23 1-0 in the opener.

Both Vietnam and the Australian squad have three points from one win and one loss but the host team rank second thanks the goal difference. Bottom-placed Kuwait have no point from two losses.

The champions will be decided on Friday when Kuwait U23 will play their Australian counterparts at 5:00 p.m. and Vietnam take on North Korea at 7:00 p.m. in the final games. The North Korean side need a draw to bring home the cup.

Australia U23, Kuwait U23 and the North Korean national squad together with the Vietnamese national squad are competing at the 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup. The four teams are playing in a round-robin tournament with the team that gets the most points being declared the championship. The tournament is taking place from Monday to Friday in Hanoi.

Violinist of Vietnamese origin wins prize at int’l contest

Ailen Pritchin, a Russian violinist of Vietnamese origin, has won the
third prize of 10,000 EUR in cash at the seventh international Frits
Kraisler violin competition, which wrapped up in the Austrian capital
city of Vienna on September 23.

The 22-year-old
Vietnamese-Russian violinist is currently studying at the Tchaikovsky
Conservatory. His father Nguyen Van Thong, is a businessman and his
Russian mother, Marina Pritchina, is a teacher in Saint-Petersburg.

Ailen has won four first prizes at the International Tchaikovsky
Competition for Young Musicians in Japan and third prize at the
international violin competition in Sweden last year.

The young violinist plans to get a doctorate degree at the Tchaikovsky
Conservatory, which will provide him with opportunities to perform
world-wide.

First prize of the Frits Kraisler
competition this year was worth 15,000 EUR and second prize 12,000 EUR.
These prizes went to Russian violinists Nikita Borisoglebsky and
Ekaterina Frolova.

Frits Kraisler (1875-1962) was an
Austrian musician and a violinist of exceptional talent. The
international violin competition named after him was first organised in
1979./.

Hanoi boasts many ancient citadels

Ha Noi is the only locality in the country with many ancient citadels.
Most popular are Co Loa, Thang Long Royal Citadel and Son Tay.

Located
in Dong Anh district, 17km from the centre of Hanoi, Co Loa citadel has
numerous archaeological sites excavated. Discoveries have shown the
continuous development of the culture from the Bronze, Stone and Iron
ages to the pinnacle of Dong Son culture.

Archaeologists said
that Co Loa was the most ancient citadel in Vietnam with unique
architecture and scale. The citadel used to be the capital of the
country under King An Duong Vuong dynasty in the third century BC and
the Ngo Quyen era in the 10th century.

The archaeological relics
show the techniques for building ramparts and reveal military tactics
from the early days of the ancient Vietnamese people who took advantages
of the natural terrain to build meandering citadel.

On the 6 th
day of the first lunar month of the year, local people hold an annual
festival to remember the citadel builders and King An Duong Vuong.

Thang Long Imperial Citadel has been recognised as a world cultural
heritage site, as it boasts treasures, both buried and visible, more
than 1,300 years old.

The site encompasses the No. 18
Hoang Dieu archaeological site and the central axis of the Hanoi
ancient citadel, which are nestled in the Forbidden Area in the heart of
Thang Long Imperial Citadel.

At the No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archaeological site, scientists found imprints typical of the Ly, Tran
and Le dynasties that revealed much about the origin of Thang Long
Imperial Citadel more than 1,300 years ago.

Lying adjacent to Kinh Thien Palace to the west, the No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archeological site is a component of the Forbidden Area from the Ly
dynasty to the end of the Le Trung Hung era.

From December 2002
to March 2004, archaeologists excavated numerous artefacts on 19,000 sq.
m of the site, exposing layers of cultures of different dynasties which
reigned in Vietnam and proving that Thang Long Imperial City
played a key role as a political centre throughout the 1,300 years.

Architectural vestiges of palaces, pavilions, and the foundations of
architectural structures of the Imperial Citadel have also been
revealed.

A system of ancient wells was exposed,
including two believed to exist in the Dai La era, two built under the
Ly dynasty, two under the Tran dynasty, and six under the Le dynasty.
These wells have a similar shape and size to those found in the
forbidden citadels in Japan , China and the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea .

The No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archaeological site has supplied clear evidence of the site’s important
role throughout the nation’s history, from 1010 to 1789.

Situated to the east of the No. 18 Hoang Dieu archaeological site is
Hanoi ’s ancient citadel area - the remainder of the central axis of
the Vauban building.

Many buildings inside the
citadel were constructed by French colonists during the 1880s after they
occupied Hanoi . There are also some important buildings built after
1954, which served as the headquarters of the Defence Ministry until
2004.

Son Tay citadel, covering 16 ha in Son Tay twonship,
40km from Hanoi’s centre, has a military rampart with special
architectural features.

The ancient military architecture was built under the Nguyen dynasty, under the reign of King Minh Mang in 1822.

The citadel was built with an overall square shape, with each wall
about 400m long and 5m high, built in the Vauban style.

One of the four main ports, or entries, the south gate was called Tien
(front) gate; the north was the Hau (back) port, the east, Ta (left)
main and the west, Huu (right) main.

After nearly 200 years
and with much devastation, ancient Son Tay citadel now has only the
walls, doors, door posts, two cannons and some ruins at Vong Lau, the
foundation of Kinh Thien palace and the wells.

Hanoi is investing in preserving those citadels to attract tourists to the city./.

Nguyen dynasty woodblocks reproduced

The State Records and Archives Department will present a set of
reproduced woodblocks “Chieu doi Do” (the royal proclamation to change
the capital city) and 1,000 copies of two books on Thang Long-Hanoi
featuring the Nguyen dynasty woodblocks, to the Hanoi People’s Committee
on September 24.

The head of the department Vu
Thi Minh Huong said that the woodblocks are the same size as the
original ones, which are 20x29.5cm and 3cm thick.

The original engraved woodblocks, which were discovered by the
National Archives Centre, were used by King Ly Cong Uan and include 214
Chinese characters.

As part of activities to
mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, an exhibition of oil
paintings by Croatian artist Anna Tzarev will also be opened in Hanoi
on September 24.

Her paintings of flowers
originate from a famous porcelain painting “Con duong gom su ven song
Hong” (the path along the banks of the Red River ) which will be opened
on the capital city’s millennial birthday.

Other activities include a performance by 18 Vietnamese circus artists
and 19 from a Spanish troupe at the Dragon festival, at the My Dinh
national stadium in Hanoi on October 2.

The programme will include music, the circus, dancing and a firework display./.

Webber braces for Singapore street fight

Red Bull Formula One driver Mark Webber of Australia leads the race in front of team mate Sebastian Vettel of Germany at the start of the Monaco F1 Grand Prix May 16, 2010

Photo: Reuters

Mark Webber has yet to finish a Singapore Grand Prix but the Formula One championship leader can expect to be third time lucky this weekend as the title battle moves up a gear.

The Red Bull driver holds a five-point advantage over McLaren's Lewis Hamilton with five races remaining and five drivers still very much in the hunt.

"We should be closer to the front than we were in Singapore last year, as the car has changed a lot," said Webber, winner of four races this season. "We're very confident we'll go there and go well."

Hamilton, the 2008 champion, has a good record at the floodlit Marina Bay circuit and won the night race last season from pole position.

Two retirements in the Briton's last three races, sandwiched around a victory in Belgium, and the Red Bull's speed around the tight and twistier circuits have given Webber grounds for optimism.

"Singapore should suit us if Monaco is anything to go by," said the Australian, who won around that street circuit in May as well as in Hungary.

"Hamilton destroyed us in Monaco and Budapest last year and this year we gave them a touch-up at both those races," he added.

"We've seen performance move around a little bit... not much... against the form card but on paper, the next few circuits look like they should be good for us."

Webber also enjoys a 24-point advantage over his quick-but-erratic team mate Sebastian Vettel but is not expecting any favors from the German, who is refusing to give up his own title ambitions.

"Help from Vettel? It depends on the team," the Australian added. "Rest assured, I have not asked for anything.”

“It's the same at McLaren."

Hamilton’s setback

Hamilton failed to complete a lap at the last grand prix in Monza, the Briton retiring after banging wheels with Felipe Massa's Ferrari in a rash attempt to overtake the Brazilian for third place.

McLaren backed their man to bounce back from that mistake and the 25-year-old does not plan to change his aggressive approach to racing.

"I've had two non-finishes and one win in the last three races... and, while that's not bad, it does mean that I lost points to some of the other drivers in the hunt for the title." the Briton said. "Those results aren't enough to get me the title, I'll keep pushing.”

“I'll take each race as it comes but I'll also be making sure I get to the finish of the next five races... that's more important than anything.

“I go to Singapore to win."

Monza proved to be a pivotal race for Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, the Spaniard's victory at the team's home circuit dragged the two-time world champion back into the mix for a third crown as he continues a late-season surge.

"Despite failing to score in Belgium, where the accident on the first lap weighed heavily like a stone, Ferrari and I have scored more points than anyone else in these last four races," the 29-year-old said.

"That makes us even more confident and the fact these results came on tracks with very different characteristics to one another confirms for me that our car is pretty versatile."

Alonso, 21 points adrift of Webber in third, has a good record in Singapore, winning controversially for Renault in 2008 when Nelson Piquet deliberately crashed to give him a strategic advantage, before a third-place finish last year.

Webber braces for Singapore street fight