VietNamNet Bridge – The national taekwondo team will be divided in two in order to send competitors to both the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and the qualifying round of the 2012 London Olympics next month.

Back in action: Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu (right) competes in the women's 57kg division of the Southeast Asian Games in Laos in 2009. Thu is training with the national team for this year's Games in Indonesia. (Photo: VNS)
The teams are aiming for four or five gold medals at the SEA Games and securing one or two qualifiers to compete in London.

Despite the region's most important sporting event being held in Indonesia, the team's training board still decided to send the nation's four leading competitors to the Olympic qualifying round including Le Huynh Chau in the men's 58kg, Duong Thanh Tam in the men's 68kg, Chu Hoang Dieu Linh in the women's 67kg and Nguyen Thi Duong in the women's 57kg.

While the competitors could participate in both events because they are not being held concurrently, with the Olympic qualifying round set for November 4-6 and the SEA Games scheduled for November 11-15, Nguyen Xuan Thanh, head of the taekwondo section of the National Sports Administration said there would not be enough time between the events for the players to recover their strength.

"I think the Olympics are more important than the SEA Games so we will focus on the Olympic qualifiers," he said.

The team scheduled to take part in Indonesia's Games is not the strongest team, but it will welcome the return of veteran Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, who won a silver at the 16th Asian Games in China last year.

Though Thu has not fully recovered from her top form, the team's training board believes in her skills and experience.

Other outstanding players on the team will include Dinh Toan, Thu Ngan, Huu Nhan and Trong Cuong who are expected to walk away from Indonesia clutching gold.

The biggest difficulty facing the team is its shortage of good experts combined with participation in many tournaments, said Thanh. However, in preparation for these events, Vietnamese martial artists have had a training sessions in China to fine tune their techniques.

Viet Nam's best Olympic performance to date was a silver medal won by women's taekwondo artist Tran Hieu Ngan in Sydney in 2000.

Viet Nam sent three taekwondo artists to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News