National U22 football team selects 60 players for try outs

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has chosen 60 players to try out for places on the U22 national team led by coach Mai Duc Chung.

Some of those chosen include Van Quyet, Hoang Thinh, Au Van Hoan, Buu Ngoc, Thanh Hoa, Danh Ngoc, Gia Tu, Hoang Thien, Xuan Hieu, Nhat Nam and Van Nam.

Coach Chung will select 26 – 30 players to make up the final team.

The selected final team members will gather in Hanoi on June 5 and then travel to the Czech Republic for a two week training course.

The U22 team is scheduled to compete in the U22 Asian Cup in Myanmar from June 22 to July 9. Vietnam will be playing in the group that includes the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan (China) and the Philippines.

VNTennis Championship opens

The final round of the VNTennis 2012 tournament opened in Hanoi on May 5.

Tennis has been developing strongly in Vietnam in recent years and this year’s competition has attracted nearly 300 semi-professional tennis players from provinces and cities across the country to compete for both professional and amateur championship titles.

The organizing board said that it cost more than VND400 million to run the event, including around VND150 million for prizes.

The championships will conclude on May 13.

Football Dreams 2012 kicks off

The Football Dreams 2012 programme will take place from May through August in provinces and cities across Vietnam.

The programme is regularly held in 15 Asian countries, including Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, with more than 60,000 contestants taking part.

After two selection rounds from May 20 to June 30, and from July 20 to 29, the top candidates from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia will compete in the final Southeast Asia round from August 2 to 5 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The winners of the final round will receive scholarships to attend the Aspire Sports Academy in Qatar, where they will be trained by coaches and experts to fulfill their potential to become professional football players.

Indonesian stops Minh’s unbeaten streak at Malaysia Open

Top Vietnam badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh was defeated by Indonesian rival and world No.79 Kuncoro Sony Dwi at the third round of the Yonex-Sunrise Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold 2012 on May 4.     

It took Dwi only 45 minutes to finish the match 2-0, sweeping out the last remaining Vietnamese representative at the tournament.

This was a shocking loss for Minh, as he had defeated Dwi 2-0 in the same event last year and 2-1 at the Indonesia Open Super Series 2007.

Local athletes to attend Asian Grand Prix

The Vietnamese national track and field squad will begin their journey for a ticket to the 2012 London Olympic Games by competing in the 2012 Asian Grand Prix Athletics starting this Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sprinters Truong Thanh Hang, Do Thi Thao, and Duong Van Thai will join the 800m event, while Vu Thi Huong and Nguyen Thi Thuy will compete at the 100m and 400m events, respectively.

The squad also includes high jumper Duong Thi Viet Anh, hurdler Nguyen Ngoc Quang, and javelin-thrower Nguyen Truong Giang, and three coaches Ho Thi Tu Tam, Nguyen Dinh Minh, and Cao Thanh Van.

Truong Thanh Hang, Duong Thi Viet Anh, and Vu Thi Huong receive the highest expectation to grab a ticket to London this summer.

In late March, Hang left for a training trip in China’s Kunming, and will return tomorrow to prepare for the Grand Prix, while Huong domestically practiced with coach Minh.

The Olympic qualifying standards B for the 100m and 800m running events are 11”38, and 2’01”30, respectively.

Vietnamese track and field currently has only one official representative at the Olympic – race walker Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc, who will compete at the 20km race walking event.

The event will wrap up on May 14, with cash prize for the champion worth US$1,500, and $800 for the second and third runner-ups.

Former champs at crucial crossroads

Becamex Binh Duong face V-League leaders Ha Noi T&T in a 16th round crucial match this weekend on their home turf Go Dau Stadium.

That game could potentially be a make-or-break event for the former two – time champion's title ambitions this season.

Binh Duong have not won a V-League title since it won two trophies in a row in 2007 and 2008.

Their ambition this year has been hurt as a streak of four defeats has driven them to seventh place with just 20 points.

Binh Duong have no choice but to defeat the visiting 2010 V-League champion, which are 10 points ahead of the home team, if the club want to keep their title hope alive.

A loss means a full stop for Binh Duong, which appointed a South Korean new coach last week with hopes for a change of fortune, as the gap has increased to 13 points and the V-League has 10 games to go.

Although there is a world of difference in recent form between the two clubs, Ha Noi T&T, which have been unbeaten since the round seven, could not easily leave Binh Duong stadium with three points.

Regardless of its poor form, Binh Duong have enough qualified players to match the visiting team, which won 1-0 in the first leg with Nguyen Van Quyet's only goal.

HCM City hires 13 foreign experts

HCM City has hired 13 foreign experts to train its athletes.

The experts will coach swimming, volleyball, table tennis, shooting, basketball, aerobics, gymnastics and track-and-field.

According to Mai Ba Hung, deputy director of the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city has signed one-year contracts with the experts and their average salary is US$1,500 per month.

HCM City is also planning to send young outstanding athletes abroad to hone their skills, Hung added.

Paramotor fliers to race in Da Nang

Fliers from the US, France, Japan and Poland will be competing in the Da Nang International Paramotor Race at the Bien Dong Park on May 23-27.

Competitors will officially compete on May 26-27 in four categories – point-trial, speed, team and rescue – along My Khe Beach.

All participating teams are allowed to train on May 23-25 before the race begins.

Spectators would take a chance to fly with a pilot during the five-day event which is organised for the first time the coastal city.

VN to compete in boxing champs

A five-member Vietnamese team will compete in the seventh AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships on May 9 in Qinhuangdao, China.

Liu Thi Duyen, who won silver at a world youth event in 2011, will be the main hope of the country at this event.

The championships, which will wrap up on May 20, will serve as the qualifying event for the Olympics Games in London.

For the very first time in history, women boxers will be competing at the Olympics, in three weight categories: 48-51kg, 57-60kg and 69-75kg. With 24 quota places (eight in each weight category) up for grabs, this event is sure to be fiercely competitive.

Top Vietnamese badminton player qualifies for London Olympics
 
Top Vietnamese badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has qualified for the 2012 Olympics Games in London, according to the latest from the World Badminton Federation.

The federation has announced that any country with a player in the world's top 38 can send him or her to London to compete in the single's category.

The Ho Chi Minh City-born Minh now ranks 11th in the international standings.

London will be Minh's second Olympics after Beijing in 2008, when he lost to Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Yu Hsing in the first round.

This summer's Olympics are expected to draw 172 players competing in men's and women's singles, doubles and mixed badminton events.

Minh is one of 15 Vietnamese athletes to earn a berth to London so far, accompanying gymnasts Phan Thi Ha Thanh, Pham Phuoc Hung and Do Thi Ngan Thuong; taekwondo artists Le Huynh Chau and Chu Hoang Dieu Linh; judoka Van Ngoc Tu; shooters Hoang Xuan Vinh and Le Thi Hoang Ngoc; track-and-field athlete Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc; fencer Nguyen Tien Nhat; rowers Pham Thi Thao and Pham Thi Hai, and weightlifter Tran Le Quoc Toan.

At the ongoing Grand Prix Gold Malaysia Open on May 3, Minh needed only 36 minutes to beat India’s Anand Pawar 2-0 in the second round.

As the world No 11, he is the event's seed No. 2 just behind world and event No. 1 Lee Chong Wei.

Minh will meet world No 72 Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in the third round.