Dutch wins championship at PWA windsurfing tournament 

Kiri Thode, a windsurfer from the Netherlands won the men's freestyle championship at the Windsurfing World Cup tournament of the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) at Mui Ne beach in the southern central province of Binh Thuan on February 28.  

Being organised in Vietnam for the first time, the 9-day event includes categories of competition namely freestyle and slalom. This year, the freestyle attracted 27 professional windsurfers from PWA, including champion 2010 Gollito Estredo from Venezuela .

At the Freestyle event, Gollito Estredo took second place and other windsurfer from the Netherlands Elton Taty Frans came third.

Health prevents Pele from visiting Vietnam

The King of Football, Pele will not come to Vietnam’s 3rd Buon Ma Thuoc Coffee Festival due to his health condition, according to the festival organizer.

Dak Lak Provincial People Committee, the organizer has invited Pele to attend as Brazilian coffee’s ambassador in the 3-day festival from March 12 – 15.

Buon Ma Thuoc Coffee Festival is a national-scale event held periodically once every two years.

It hopes to promote Buon Ma Thuoc coffee trademark and advertise the Vietnamese coffee industry to the world.

The festival will comprise a series of cultural, sports and tourism events such as art performance, a street festival and exhibition of coffee products.

Vietnam is the world’s second largest coffee producer after Brazil. In recent years, coffee has become the key product in the central Highland province of Dak Lak, with the yearly output of over 400,000 tons and export turnover of US $600 million.

The festival will open at 8 p.m next Saturday at 10/3 Square, Buon Ma Thuoc City, Dak Lak province.

International Grand Master Le Quang Liem will be competing at Germany’s Weder Bremen chess club during the 12th round of the on-going German Chess tournament (Schachbundesliga) later next month.

Liem, 20, who won the Russian International Chess Festival-Aeroflot Open in Moscow, will team up with IGMs Vulgar Gashimov from Azerbaijan and Hungarian Richard Rappor at the German chess championship this year.

The HCM City-born IGM will also play at the Evry Grand Roque Club for the French Chess League Top 16 this June.

Hanoi T&T lose 4-0 to Muang Thong

Lacking many key players due to injury, Hanoi T&T made a poor start to the 2011 Asian Football Federation (AFC) Cup with a 4-0 loss to Muang Thong in a group G match at Thunderdome stadium in Bangkok yesterday.

The hosts controlled the game from the start while the Vietnamese team was forced to play defensively for most of the time. In the 21st minute, Teerasil Dangda opened the scoring for the hosts. Hanoi T&T had a good chance to equalise in the last minute of the first half but Matias Recio’s shot was denied by keeper Kawin Thamsatchanan.

After the break, the Thai team continued to dominate and scored three more goals thanks to Teerasil Dangda, Christian Kouakou and Anon Sangsanoi in the 54th, 59th and 90th minutes to seal the 4-0 victory.

Also in group G, Singapore's Tampines Rovers beat Maldives' Victory 3-1. With three points, Muang Thong currently tops the group on goal difference from Tampines Rovers, followed by Victory and Hanoi T&T.

Earlier, in Group F, another Vietnamese representative in the AFC Cup, Song Lam Nghe An, also suffered a 2-1 loss to Hong Kong’s TSW Pegasus at Vinh stadium.

Nguyen Hong Viet helped Song Lam Nghe An to take the lead in the 13th minute, however, TSW Pegasus took the three points away from the hosts with two goals in the last ten minutes.

In another match, Indonesia's Sriwijaya drew 1-1 with Maldives’ VB Sports Club.

Viet Nam will take part in badminton's Sudirman Cup

Viet Nam will take part in the Badminton World Federation's Sudirman Cup in China from May 22-29.

Defending champion China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka will also be among the 31 teams to take part in the event.

Teams will compete in all categories of men's and women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Women's cycling tourney's 15 teams to start in Binh Duong

The Binh Duong Province Women's Cycling Open will begin on Monday with the participation of 15 teams, including two foreign teams from Thailand and Malaysia.

Riders will compete in six stages for their shot at the VND200 million (US$9,500) prize for overall winner, best youth and best team.

A 3.5km time trial around the southern province of Binh Duong will kick off the 550km race.

The tournament will end on March 13.