Some 60 swimmers representing 14 teams will be taking part in the National Sports Games at the Ha Noi Aquatic Centre on Monday, the Viet Nam Aquatic Sports Association announced.
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VnnNews – Some 60 swimmers representing 14 teams will be taking part in the National Sports Games at the Ha Noi Aquatic Centre on Monday, the Viet Nam Aquatic Sports Association (VASA) announced.
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Swimmers will be competing for 30 medal sets over five days.
Viet Nam’s best swimmers, who have just returned home from training in Kunming, China, for the championships, include Olympian Nguyen Huu Viet of Hai Phong, teen prodigy Hoang Quy Phuoc of Da Nang and Do Huy Long of Ha Noi.
Hai Phong-based Viet remains unbeaten since 2005 in Viet Nam in the men’s 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke.
Last year, the 22-year-old swimmer set a record time of 2:16.61 in the 200m breaststroke, smashing the previous record of 2:17:00 set at the World Swimming Championship in Italy in June.
The Olympian set a new Southeast Asian Games record in the men’s 100m breaststroke in Laos when he clocked a time of 1:01.6.
He also won the SEA Games gold in the Philippines in 2005 and in Thailand in 2007.
“I’m ready to win in Ha Noi on Monday. The goId medal will give my training abroad a real boost,” Viet said.
HCM City are expected to dominate the women’s competition. The City’s best medal hopes are Tran Thi Kim Tuyen, Tran Tam Nguyen and Tran Bao Nhi, who spent last year training in Kunming and have been training in Hubei, China, since the beginning of this year.
Da Nang, Quang Binh and Long have also sent their athletes to train abroad.
“Swimming is a prelude to the National Games, so teams want to get off to a good start. Although HCM City, Ha Noi and the Army teams are still the main powerhouses in swimming, Hai Phong and Quang Binh can be tough rivals,” said Nguyen Thu Hang, a VASA official.
Despite their past success, HCM City have been far from complacent this year.
“We started our training programme very early this year in the hope we will win a haul of medals in swimming,” said Chung Tan Phong, head of city’s aquatic sports section. “HCM City has forked out US$63,000 to train athletes abroad. The City has also hired foreign coaches.”
Nguyen Anh Tuan’s HCM City’s coach, said he was confident Tran Thi Kim Tuyen would shine this year.
“Tuyen is actually a prodigy. She can beat rivals in many disciplines – butterfly, backstroke, freestyle and relay. I hope she will help the City duplicate the success it had four years ago in swimming when we bagged 17 golds, 10 silvers and eight bronze medals.”
VietNamNet/VNS
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