VietNamNet Bridge – A new policy will strive to build strong reserves of young weightlifters through a system of competitions to ensure continuity in the national team, a senior sports official said yesterday, April 19.

Do Dinh Khang, head of weightlifting section under the National Sports Administration told Viet Nam News that the move was prompted by the void left behind by the doping-related suspension of Olympic silver medallist Nguyen Anh Tuan (56kg) and the retirement of Nguyen Thi Thiet (63kg) last year.

Their absence left gaps in the national team that were difficult to fill, he said.

The current national team's hopes rested on just Duong Thanh Truc and Nguyen Thi Phuong, he said.

While there was no weightlifter in sight to take Thiet's role in the women's 63kg category, Thach Kim Tuan, the gold medallist at the Youth Olympic Games last August in Singapore, will need time and a lot of effort to match Hoang Anh Tuan, he said.

The total weight that seventeen-year-old Kim Tuan lifted in Singapore was 256kg, 34kg less than the weight that helped Anh Tuan claim a silver at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

"The discontinuity comes from the fact that for years we only invested in elite athletes and ignored the training of young athletes. When senior athletes cannot compete for certain reasons, we need many years before we can find a replacement," Khang said.

A good omen is that the weightlifting is developing well in more provinces across the country, not only big cities, he said, adding that the fourth National Youth Weightlifting Championships this year saw some new athletes emerge from outside the usual powerhouse regions.

Khang said that in the four years since the championship was opened, more provinces like Quang Ninh, Nghe An and Yen Bai have discovered and trained potential weightlifters.

Athletes from Yen Bai have managed to win several gold medals this year, he noted, adding that Hai Duong, Hung Yen and the mountainous province of Lao Cai have also done well.

"At competitions like this, which is for athletes 13-16 years old, it is not about medals, but about ensuing that young weightlifters are doing their lifting in a proper way so that they can succeed in the long-term," Khang said.

He said the national championships has thrown up some weightlifters with promising potential, like Pham Van Hao of Ha Noi and Nguyen Tran Anh Tuan of HCM City in the men's 60kg category.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News