Hanoi hosts Tiger Street Football festival

The international Tiger Street Football 2013 festival will take place at the Royal City Centre in Hanoi on October 26.

The festival is expected to attract 32 teams from enterprises and government organisations in the capital. The competition will be organised in knockout form.

The total prize money totals 85 million VND (over 4,000 USD), with the winning team netting 45 million VND while the second and third placed ones will receive 25 million VND and 15 million VND respectively.

The champion will also win the right to represent the northern region at a national tournament scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City in mid- October.

The winner of that contest will represent Vietnam on the international stage, competing against eight rivals from European and Asian nations. The total prize money for that tournament stands at 900 million VND (42,800 USD).-

Viet Nam sends squad to Asian Youth Para Games

Vietnamese athletes will compete at the Asian Youth Para Games in Malaysia.

The 22-strong team who left for Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday will compete in chess, swimming, judo, weightlifting, badminton and track-and-field.

Taking place from October 26-30, the Games will feature 14 sports, five more than when the event was last held in Tokyo in 2009.

The inaugural edition in Hong Kong in 2003 featured only two sports and the event is now seen as an important step towards bigger events such as next year's Asian Para Games in Incheon, Korea and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Military hot shots fire on first day of marksmen champs

The military team were bang on form for the first day of the 49th national marksmen championships at the national sports training centre in Ha Noi.

The dominance began in the men's 50m pistol event, where the team claimed the top three spots. Ho Thanh Hai won gold with 650.2 points, Nguyen Hoang Phuong claimed silver with 645.3 and Hoang Xuan Vinh grabbed bronze with 642.4.

The military added another silver to their medal tally as Nguyen Phuong Thao finished second in the women's air rifle event. Nguyen Thi Xuan of Ha Noi won gold and Le Thi Anh Dao clinched bronze medal.

The military's final salute for the day came with a bronze medal won by Le Thi Linh Chi in the women's 25m sport pistol event. Nguyen Thu Van from the Ministry of Public Security took gold and the silver was claimed by Trieu Thi Hoa Hong of HCM City.

The championships, which last until October 30, continue with three events today.

Ha Noi triumph at national terrain cycling event

Ha Noi won the terrain event at the National Cycling Championships, reaping eight golds and two silver medals from their efforts in the last two days at Hoa Binh City's Ong Tuong Hill.

Second place belonged to Binh Duong with one gold and three silvers, while Son La were third with one gold.

On Wednesday, Ha Noi dominated by claiming all four gold medals and doubled their tally on the final day with wins in four categories: 1.5km men's downhill, 20km Olympic women's individual cross-country, 25km Olympic men's individual cross-country and Olympic men's team cross-country.

Binh Duong won their gold in the Olympic women's team cross-country category, while Son La earned theirs in the 1,5km women's downhill.

The event attracted 41 cyclists from 10 teams, including Ha Noi, Binh Duong, Son La, HCM City and hosts Hoa Binh.

Viet Nam advance to second round of badminton competition

Viet Nam yesterday beat Hong Kong 3-2 in the Badminton World Federation's World Junior Championships' mixed team event in Bangkok, Thailand.

The third win pushed them to the top of the Group Z2 with nine points.

Earlier yesterday, Viet Nam's young athletes defeated rivals from Armenia 5-0. On Wednesday they had no difficulty beating Turkey, 5-0..

Today Viet Nam will face South Korea, winners in Group Z1. The second round of the event which is known as the Suhandinata Cup will end on Sunday.

The individual event, the Eye-level Cup, will continue from October 28 to November 3.

Nam storms to third round

Vietnamese tennis talent and second seed Ly Hoang Nam easily progressed to the third round at the ITF Group Two youth tennis championships in Bangkok.

The teenager easily defeated Harper Mitchell of Australia 6-2, 6-1 in the second round yesterday. Nams third-round opponent today will be Denmarks Benjamin Hannestad, who beat Francois Kellerman of South Africa 7-5, 6-1.

Hannestad, seeded No 13, previously crushed Nut Rungsithmongkol of Thailand 6-2, 6-0 in the first round.

In the doubles event, Nam and Jake Delaney, seeded No 3, was ousted in the second round following their 7-5, 3-6, [10-4] defeat by Shieh Chao-Ting and Zhou Sheng Hao.

Song Hong half marathon back for another run

The Song Hong half-marathon will take place on December 8.

Hosted by the Hanoi Red River Runners, the race will utilise the open streets surrounding West Lake, with the lake as a stunning background.

Races offered are 21.1km, 10km and 5km. There is also a kid's fun run. All events start and finish in Ciputra early Sunday morning, following a compulsory race kit pick-up and briefing one day before.

For more details, visit redriverrunners.com or facebook.com/redriverrunners.hanoi.

Vietnam’s U21 on cloud nine over Sky Blues

Vietnamese players on October 23 beat Australian Sydney FC 4-1 in a penalty shootout to win the U21 International Thanh Nien Newspaper Cup in the central coastal province of Ninh Thuan.

The game started at a high tempo in front of a sell-out crowd of 12,000 at the Ninh Thuan Stadium. The first half saw blistering attacks from the two teams. Sky Blues had their opponents rattled early with constant pressing and closing down the Vietnamese players who relied on the long ball to relieve the pressure.

Sydney FC were rewarded for their efforts just one minute from the break when a loose ball in the penalty area was volleyed home by Joshua Macdonald from an angle for much deserved 1-0 lead at the break.

In the 2nd half, the game evened out as Vietnam kept looking to catch the Sky Blues on the counter with quick ball transition in the midfield and then long balls out wide into the channels. This strategy paid off in the 63rd minute when Nguyen Dinh Bao broke through the Sydney back line to level the score.

The score remained unchanged until the final whistle and neither side could find a winner in the end. With no extra time being played in the tournament the winner was decided from the penalty spot.

Vietnamese players were able to capitalise on all four penalties while the Australian squad missed three shots after an initial goal.

Malaysia, who ranked third with five points, will take on Myanmar in the third-place match. Myanmar are in fourth place with four points.

The annual tournament, organised by Thanh Nien (Young people) newspaper, plays in a round-robin format with the two top teams reaching the final. This year’s competition featured five teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Australia, and Vietnam.