VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese track and field athletes returned home from the Malaysia Open on the weekend with two gold and one silver medals.

Vietnam athletics lacks long-term strategy

Vietnamese athletes join Asian indoor athletics tournament

Home in a flash: Vu Thi Huong wins a gold medal in the women's 100m sprint at the Malaysia Open. She then added another gold in the team 4x100m relay. Huong is one of favourites among Vietnamese in the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, on November 12-27. (Photo: VNS)
Regional sprint queen Vu Thi Huong, who won the first semi-final, went on to take the title of the women's 100m event in a time of 11.55sec. Her teammate Le Ngoc Phuong, who won the second semi-final, pocketed the silver in 11.79 sec.

They both later participated in the women's 4x100m relay, which Viet Nam easily won in a time of 45.06sec.

Coach Nguyen Dinh Minh said he was pleased with the team's achievements, even though they had performed better at other tournaments.

"They performed well and achieved some good results at the [Malaysia] Open. What I regretted most however is that the competition attracted only Southeast Asian athletes, so we were not able to test ourselves against the best in the region," Minh said.

He added that he was not disappointed that Huong did not get closer to her best time of 11.34, which she achieved when winning the SEA Games title. He said there were still three weeks to go to the 16th Asian Games (ASIAD), when he said he believed Huong would be at her peak.

At the biggest sports event in the region, Vietnamese athletes will compete in the women's 200m, 800m, 1,500m, 400m hurdle and 4x400m relay; while the men will take part in the 800m, 1,500m, long jump, triple jump and decathlon.

The track and field events start on November 21, with the finals taking place six days later at the Aoti Stadium in Guangzhou.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News