Viet Nam will send its 260-member squad to compete in 29 of the 42 events at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China from November 12-27.

Deputy head of the National Sports Administration Le Quy Phuong will lead the team at the Asian Games.

Viet Nam hopes to finish in the top 15 out of the 45 participating countries and territories.

High hopes: Vietnamese athletes march during the Southeast Asian Games’ opening ceremony in Laos last December. Viet Nam will send a 260-member squad to compete in 29 of 42 sports at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, from November 12-27. (Photo: VNS)

Viet Nam’s chief medal hope, Chinese chess player Ngo Lan Huong, who was the 2009 world runner-up, is eyeing a gold medal.

In Qatar four years ago, Viet Nam won three gold, 13 silver and seven bronze medals to rank 19th out of the 45 countries at the competition.

Viet Nam began participating in Asia’s biggest sport event at the Seoul games in 1986.

In 1994 at the Hiroshima Asian Games in Japan, Taekwondo artist Tran Quang Ha won the country’s first gold medal, while Pham Hong Ha and Tran Van Thong brought home two silver medals.

At the Busan Asian Games in South Korea in 2002, the country had their best showing after winning four gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals to help Viet Nam finish 15th at the event.

Thien cruises to junior tennis quarterfinal

Teenager Nguyen Hoang Thien cruised to the quarters-finals of the Viet Nam International Junior Championship after beating Denmark’s Mikael Torpegaard 6-4, 6-2 in southern Binh Duong Province yesterday, Oct 12.

Thien, the top seed, beat South Korea’s Lee Sung-hui 6-0, 6-1 in the boys’ singles first round on Monday.

The 15-year-old will meet Sweden’s Solberg Christoffer, who beat Vietnamese Ho Huynh Dan Mach 6-2, 6-4, in the quarters at Binh Duong’s Becamex Sports Centre today, Oct 13.

On Saturday, Thien won the men’s singles title at the International Junior Championships in the southern province of Bac Lieu.

Two years ago, Thien took the singles title in Binh Duong Province, but only managed third place last year.

Born in 1995, Thien first stepped onto a tennis court at the age of eight.

His target is to break into the top 200 in the world by the time he’s 18.

He currently ranks 431st in the International Tennis Federation’s junior rankings.

Santos says no plans for Binh Duong move

Goalkeeper Phan Van Santos says he has not signed a contract with the Becamex Binh Duong football club for the next V-League season.

"It is not true that I have signed a three-year contract with Binh Duong and I am currently under contract with Navibank Sai Gon," the former national goalkeeper told Viet Nam News, rejecting local reports about his move.

The naturalised Brazilian Vietnamese, known for scoring goals from free kicks, is on a four-day business trip to Singapore.

Santos, 33, who was granted Vietnamese citizenship in 2008, has played football in Viet Nam for nine years and is one of the most successful goalkeepers in the V-League.

In eight years with Dong Tam Long An, he won two V-League titles before moving to Navibank Sai Gon in the second half of last season.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News