HA NOI – Vietnamese track and fields athletes have a chance to take part in the 13th World Athletics Championship in South Korea, according to standards just released by the International Association of Athletics Federation.
A and B standards are to be applied to participants. Vietnamese seeking opportunities are: women's 100m and 200m Vu Thi Huong, 800m and 1,500m Truong Thanh Hang, men's decathlon Vu Van Huyen.
Huong has to run 100m in 11.38sec and the 200m in 23.30 and Hang must run 800m in 2:01.30 and 1500 in 4:08.90, both to meet the B standard.
Huong last December broke the national record in the National Sport Games' 200m event with similar result to the standard while her seasonal best in the 100m was 11.34 at the 25th SEA Games' 100m in Laos in 2009.
Da Nang-based Hang has the chance run in both South Korea and England if she can maintain the times she ran at the 16th Asian Games in Gaungzhou last November.
Hang earned two silver medals in her two events with times of 2:00.91 and 4:08.22, respectively. Both are better than the B standard.
The runners' tasks now are to maintain their results.
The Vietnamese are also likely to qualify for the London Olympics next December because the standards applied for that even are lower than that of the world competition in South Korea.
Hang and Huong will receive intensive support this year. Huong will take part in a long-term training course in Germany while Hang will train in China or Bhutan.
They will return home ahead of the Asian Athletics Championship in Kobe, Japan, on July 7-10. If they qualify they will compete in the world championship from August 27 to September 4 in Daegu City.
Meanwhile, Iron man Huyen has to achieve 8,000 points to reach the B standard.
Huyen surprised in Guangzhou where he won a bronze medal with 7,755 points. – VNS
