VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's Truong Thanh Hang has been tipped to break the national record and reach the Olympic B standard at the World Athletics Championship later this month in South Korea.

High hopes: Truong Thanh Hang trains in Ha Noi. She will be competing at the World Championships that kick off in South Korea next Saturday. (Photo: VNS)
German expert Gunter Lange who played a key role in Hang's success at last month's Asian Championship strongly believes in his athlete.

"I have supervised her for a long period and seen great progress," Lange said.

"Hang has finished a five-month training course in Europe which focused on pushing her endurance and developing her competition tactics. Her Asian gold proved that the trip was useful. Her preparation is on the right track for more good results," he said.

The HCM City-born ran 2min 1.41sec in Kobe last month, missing out on the Olympic qualification time by just 0.11sec.

Her coach Ho Thi Tu Tam also has faith in the runner.

"That time was the second best set by an Asian runner in the 800m event in history. I was really satisfied with her performance and believe that she will meet the B standard in Daegu where Hang will be Viet Nam's sole representative," Tam said.

The 25-year-old is training in China's Yunnan under Lange and expert Lutz Meissner. The area was selected because it is an ideal venue to work on endurance at an altitude of 2,300m-2,400m above sea level, helping athletes increase their performance by up to five per cent, according to Lange.

The city is also in the same time zone as Daegu, the tournament's host city, with similar cool weather for Hang to acclimatise to. She will fly to Daegu on August 29 and take part in the women's 800m qualifier three days later. If she qualifies, the HCM City-born runner will be in action again on the following day in the semi-final.

Lange said Hang could break the national record of 2:00.91 that she set at the 2010 Asian Games where she grabbed silver medals in the 800m and 1,500m events.

Lange and his colleague Meissner have set a target for Hang of breaking into the world top 10.

According to coach Tam their target is high, but Hang has a real chance of achieving it because "she has not fulfilled all of her potential and she still has time to reach new heights in her career," Tam said.

The World Championships will kick off next Saturday and conclude on September 4.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News