Off-road race in Da Lat attracts 20 teams

Twenty drivers gathered their specially modified stock cars at the starting line of the country’s largest off-road race, which kicked off the holiday week-end on Aug 30 and runs until Sep 2, in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong.

The teams were selected as the best from qualifying rounds staged previously in Dong Nai and Lam Dong provinces and Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Vung Tau City.

Drivers are competing in ten categories. They must go through complex terrain races including jungles, rivers and hills, suburbs of Da Lat City, Lat commune, and jungles in Lac Duong and Dam Rong districts.

The organising board expects to choose the best team to compete in international races. In the future, the Vietnam General Department of Sports and Physical Training is planning to establish a Vietnam Federation of Off-road Automobile Racing.

Amateurs to take part in Heineken

Amateurs will be competing in the 2014 Heineken World Golfers Championship Qualifiers to be held at Montgomerie Links Golf Course in Quang Nam Province next Saturday.

The event's organising committee announced that the players would be registering to compete in six handicap groups: 0-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20, as well as 21-24 and foreigners.

The winner of each group will qualify for the final round, to be held in HCM City later this month.

Dong Thap win national U15 trophy

Dong Thap won the National U15 Football Championship title yesterday, beating PVF 5-3 in the penalty shootout at HCM City's Thong Nhat Stadium.

The official time ended with the score tied at 1-1.

Tran Cong Minh scored for Dong Thap five minutes into the first half while Van Xuan of PFV leveled the result 25 minutes later from a penalty.

After 90 minutes, the two sides entered the penalties in which Dong Thap succeeded four times while defending champions PFV could manage only two goals.

Ha Noi T&T and Viettel shared third places.

Int’l pentaque champs kick off in HCM City

Five foreign teams are competing at the 23rd international pentaque championships taking place in Ho Chi Minh City from August 29-31.

The five teams are Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan (China).

The event is also drawing the participation of 220 Vietnamese players from 25 localities throughout the country, including Dong Thap, Vung Tau, Vinh Long, Can Tho, Tra Vinh, Nghe An and Soc Trang.

The championships comprise different events, including men’s and women’s triplets, and men’s and women’s precision shooting.

The tournament provides an opportunity for Vietnamese athletes to get more experience and prepare for the upcoming ASIAN Beach Games in Thailand.

Tien Minh says farewell to BWF tourney

Nguyen Tien Minh suffered a tough loss to Danish rival Victor Axelsen 0-2 in the third round of the 2014 BWF World Badminton Championships semi-finals.

Axelsen, placed 16th on the BWF rankings, easily disposed of Minh 21-16 in the first set.

The Vietnamese player scored the first point in the second set. However, Axelsen quickly tied the score and went on to dominate the remainder of the match, finishing it in 21-17 in his favour.

In the women’s singles, Vu Thi Trang also dropped out of the tournament after suffering a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Chinese Shixian Wang in the third round.

Vietnam Open to attract int'l athletes

The Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open badminton tournament will be organised from September 1 to 9 in HCM City.

More than 170 players will compete in five categories of men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles events for a total prize of US$50,000 at the HCM City's Phan Dinh Phung Gymnasium.

Indonesia will send the highest number of players, 74, followed by the hosts (46) and Malaysia (45).

Top Vietnamese player Nguyen Tien Minh is seeded No 3 this year at the tournament, after he dropped to No 30 in the world ranking.

VNS/VOV/VNN