Minh grabs his 9th men's singles title

Top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh cruised to a 21-13, 21-8 win over Ha Noi's Le Ha Anh in the men's singles final of the National Badminton Championship in Thai Nguyen Province on Sunday.

It's the ninth singles title for Minh who plays for HCM City in the national championship.

The 26-year-old will play the Yonex Open Japan today competing in the Denmark Super Series and France Super Series in coming weeks.

Table tennis team trains for SEA Games

Two-time Olympian Doan Kien Quoc and his Viet Nam table tennis teammates will leave for Guangxi Province in China for a month-long training session from October 5, Viet Nam's Table Tennis Federation has said.

A veteran of the Athens and Beijing Olympics, 31-year-old Quoc will team up with Tran Tuan Quynh, Nguyen Thanh Luan and Dinh Quang Linh for the Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia this November.

The Vietnamese men's team won a gold medal doubles event in the last SEA Games in Laos two years ago.

Teen weightlifter receives honours

Weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan received the Labour Order, Third Class, for his gold medal in Singapore's 2008 Youth Olympics and three gold medals in the Asian Youth Weightlifting Championship in Pattaya, Thailand, last week.

Tuan won a hattrick of gold medals and broke two world youth records in the men's 56kg category at the event.

Tuan, 17, will be a gold medal contender at the upcoming SEA Games.

Hai returns as Binh Duong coach

Coach Le Thuy Hai has agreed to take charge of the Binh Duong football team, signing a one-year contract, the southern football team said.

Hai, who resigned from the Thanh Hoa last months, will take the post of Binh Duong in the national top-flight football championship, V-League, next year.

The 65-year-old helped Binh Duong win the V-League twice in 2007-08 before coaching the now defunct The Cong, or Army team, Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa in the V-League.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News