Top sportspeople to be honoured

Hundreds of journalists and sports
aficionados cast their votes for the athletes and coaches of the year in
Hanoi, Da Nang and HCM City on Jan. 6.

Track and field athletes, who excelled at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China last year, are expected to dominate this years awards for
outstanding sporting achievements.

The annual awards were launched 33 years ago and have become an indispensable part of the sporting calendar.

Notable performances at the Guangzhou Games came from sprinter Vu Thi
Huong, who won a bronze medal in the women's 100m and a 200m silver;
Truong Thanh Hang, who won silvers in the 800 and 1,500m and bronze
medal decathlete Vu Van Huyen.

Karateist Le Bich
Phuong, who won Viet Nam's only gold medal to salvage Vietnamese
pride in the martial arts competitions at the Games, is likely to win
the poll.

Other candidates for honours include men's
chess player Le Quang Liem, shooter Ha Minh Thanh and Youth Olympics
weightlifting gold medallist Thach Kim Tuan.

Voters also nominated their choices for Vietnam's best coaches and disabled athletes in Jan. 6's poll.

The awards are jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports
and Tourism, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Vietnam Fund for
Young Talent Support and The Thao Vietnam (Vietnam Sports) newspaper.

The final results will be officially announced this
week, while a gala night to honour athletes and coaches will be held in
Hanoi next month. /.

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V-League TV rights still in contention

HA NOI – Agreements concerning V-League's broadcasting rights have to yet to be finalised after cable TV provider Audio Vision Global (AVG) and television stations held meetings yesterday.

AVG, who won a 20-year contract with the Viet Nam Football Federation last December to broadcast V-League matches, has been offering local television stations rights to broadcast V-League matches this year, but the negotiations have not been finalised.

AVG, which is licensed to operate a satellite and digital television company, plans to officially launch a 70-channel TV package later this year. The company has set a deadline for local TV stations to sign TV deals by Monday.

The V-League will kick off on January 23, but Vietnamese fans will not be able to watch any matches if an agreement is not made by next week.

Representatives from Viet Nam Television channel 3 said it'll try to buy the rights to broadcast the V-League matches this year.

The national football championship has been a money maker for the VFF since 2004, when Viet Nam Television paid VND4 billion ($200,000) to broadcast V-League matches.

The cable TV provider, a member of the An Vien Group, was established in 2008 with VND1,800 billion ($85 million) in charter capital. - VNS

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Top sportspeople to be honoured

Tasting success: Karateist Le Bich Phuong bites her gold medal at the Asian Games at Guanzhou, China, last year. She is likely to dominate the poll for the best athlete of the year. — VNA/VNS Photo Quoc Khanh

HA NOI — Hundreds of journalists and sports aficionados cast their votes for the athletes and coaches of the year in Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City yesterday.

Track and field athletes, who excelled at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China last year, are expected to dominate this years awards for outstanding sporting achievements.

The annual awards were launched 33 years ago and have become an indispensable part of the sporting calendar.

Notable performances at the Guangzhou Games came from sprinter Vu Thi Huong, who won a bronze medal in the women's 100m and a 200m silver; Truong Thanh Hang, who won silvers in the 800 and 1,500m and bronze medal decathlete Vu Van Huyen.

Karateist Le Bich Phuong, who won Viet Nam's only gold medal to salvage Vietnamese pride in the martial arts competitions at the Games, is likely to win the poll.

Other candidates for honours include men's chess player Le Quang Liem, shooter Ha Minh Thanh and Youth Olympics weightlifting gold medallist Thach Kim Tuan.

Voters also nominated their choices for Viet Nam's best coaches and disabled athletes in yesterday's poll.

The awards are jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Viet Nam Fund for Young Talent Support and The Thao Viet Nam (Viet Nam Sports) newspaper.

The final results will be officially announced this week, while a gala night to honour athletes and coaches will be held in Ha Noi next month. — VNS

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Liem slip-up throws tournament open

HCM City — With Viet Nam's top-seeded Grandmaster Le Quang Liem suffering his first defeat yesterday, the HDBank Open Cup chess tournament has been thrown wide open.

At the Rex Hotel in HCM City, Liem, the world No 79, surprisingly lost to eighth-seeded Filipino GM Gomez John Paul in the fifth round.

Paul now tops the table with five points.

He is followed by Chinese GM Yu Yangyi with 4.5 points and Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, who is on four points after beating another Chinese GM Zhou Weiqi yesterday.

The loss has left 20-year-old Liem on 3.5 points. With just four more rounds to go, Liem may have left himself with too much to do to win his first title of the year.

Earlier, he had beaten Singapore's Fernandez Daniel Howard in the first round and China's GM Lou Yiping in the second round, drew with Bitoon Richard of the Philippines, and beat compatriot Nguyen Duc Hoa in the fourth.

Also on 3.5 points are GMs Cao Sang and Tran Thanh Tu of Viet Nam, Richard, GMs Laylo Darwin and Salvador Roland and IMs Barbosa Oliver and Dimakiling of the Philippines, GMs Wen Yang, Zhao Jun, and Wang Chen of China.

The week-long tournament has attracted 30 Vietnamese players and 35 others from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine.

It concludes on Sunday. — VNS

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VTV-Binh Dien Volleyball Cup begins in Dong Nai

The annual International Women's Volleyball Championships will start tomorrow in the southern province of Dong Nai with the spotlight firmly focused on the Australian team.

The tournament, which is also known as the VTV-Binh Dien Cup, will see the participation of three domestic and four foreign teams competing in a round robin format before the top four teams progress to the semi-finals.

Viet Nam will be represented by Military Signal Corps, Vietsov Petro and VTV-Binh Dien Long An, while Australia will be joined by teams from Jiangsu Province and Tianjin University in China and Thai club Lopburi.

The Australian team will feature professional players from European clubs and are the hot favourites.

Vietsov Petro will play Tianjin University in the opening match and the final will held on January 16. The winners of the tournament will walk away with VND200 million (US$10,000).

Amateur tennis players to contest SMiC Cup

Amateurs will compete for the Tennis Open-SMiC Cup at the FLC Golfnet Club in Ha Noi this weekend.

The tournament became an annual event on Viet Nam Tennis Federation's calendar last year, and will see players competing in men's and women's doubles. The winning pair will pocket VND10 million (US$500).

Referee Dung chosen to train in English Premier League

Young referee Dinh Van Dung has been selected to take part in a training course organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in England.

The Dong Nai-based official was of the top five referees on an AFC training course in 2008 and will train with 15 colleagues from the Premier League from January 15-22.

Last year, Dung was the leading official for the opening game of the International Youth Football Tournament – Sanix Cup between Japan and China.

He was praised for completing a successful job with confidence and accurate decisions by Pirom Anprasert, a prestigious AFC lecturer.

Junior Thien to compete in Australian Open in Melbourne

Nguyen Hoang Thien has earned a berth in the Australian Open junior category which starts on January 24 in Melbourne.

Thien, who will be 16 in March, jumped 111 places in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings released on Monday, from 323 to 212.

Thien is the first Vietnamese player to compete at one of the four grand slams.

He has set a target of breaking into the top 200 this year, and will warm up for the Open by taking part in the Loy Yang Traralgon International on January 15-20 in Traralgon, Australia. — VNS

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Traditional Tet food specialties go abroad

Pickled Welsh onion, square sticky
rice cake, traditional jams, sugar-coated fruit and many other
Vietnamese favourites in the lunar New Year festival (Tet) have so far
been shipped to Japan, Europe and the US in service of Overseas
Vietnamese.

The south-based Tran Gia Company,
for example, has exported 30 tonnes of square and cylindrical sticky
rice cakes and phrynium leaves (used in wrapping the cakes) to France
and the US, homes to large Vietnamese communities, as Tet is
approaching.

The Ngoc Lien food company in Ho
Chi Minh City has shipped three containers of Tet specialties,
including pickled Welsh onion and rice paper to make spring roll
wrappings, to the US. The company owner, Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, said
demand for these products on the threshold of Tet was huge.

Exporters said specialty exports have risen between 25 and 30 percent
in the two months before Tet over previous months, while prices
increased by 10 percent year on year.

They said
regular shipments of such Vietnamese Tet specialties are now sent abroad
year round and have become popular in supermarkets in foreign markets,
instead of just during Tet or in Vietnamese markets.

In an effort to promote these products abroad, domestic enterprises
have not only taken part in international food trade fairs but also
built their own websites featuring traditional Vietnamese specialties./.

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Thiet says goodbye with golds and record

Female weightlifter Nguyen Thi Thiet has officially retired from competition after winning three gold medals and breaking one record at the sixth National Sports Games.

Thiet, who is the only Vietnamese lifter to compete at two Olympic Games, has been suffering from a knee injury for months, that prevented her from competing at the recent Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

Having already secured the gold medal, the Hai Duong Province-born athlete set a a SEA Games record by lifting 126kg in the 63kg category.

Thiet plans to work as a coach in her native province.

Dong Tam Long An sign new coach

Dong Tam Long An have hired a new coach just days before national football tournaments are due to kick off. Marco Octavio Cerqueira is the team's fourth foreign coach in three years.

The Brazilian replaces Macerlo Javier Zuleta who worked with the club for only three months before returning home to Argentina, due to family reasons.

Cerqueira has completed his FIFA coaching certificate and also graduated from Gama Filho College in Brazil with a physical training qualification. He first worked in beach football and led his national team to 10 World Championships before winning two European titles with Portugal and Belgium.

Cerqueira moved to football in 1995 and has worked with teams from Portugal, Brazil, China and Iran before coming to Viet Nam.

The coach said he agreed with the target of a top three finish set by the club when he signed the contract.

Minh loses first game at Super Series Finals

Viet Nam's Nguyen Tien Minh lost his first match in Group A at the VICTOR-BWF's 2010 Super Series Finals yesterday.

Minh was defeated 12-21, 17-21 by the world and tournament No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia yesterday in Chinese Taipei's Hsinchuang Gymnasium.

In the other Group A match, Dane Peter Gade beat his fellow countryman Jan Jorgensen 21-11, 18-21, 21-16.

It was Minh's sixth consecutive lost to Lee in international competitions, with his only win coming two years ago at the Singapore Open.

Minh will next play Gade while Lee will face Jorgensen.

The top two players from each group will advance to the semi-finals and the winner of the elite eight man tournament will take home US$40,000. — VNS

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