Viet Nam progress in Junior Davis Cup

Viet Nam won their third match and took the lead in Group D of the Junior Davis Cup's Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying tournament in Kuching, Malaysia, after defeating Lebanon 2-1 yesterday.

Earlier, the team, which was seeded fifth, beat Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

In this leading position, Viet Nam entered the quarter-final round and will meet Iran today.

Gymnasts to show off skills in international tournaments

The national gymnastics team will participate in four tournaments in March and April.

The athletes will be divided in two squads. One squad will participate in the ART Cottbus 38th Turnier Der Meister World Challenge Cup, which will be organised between March 13 and 17 in Cottbus, Germany. The other group will take part in the RG Debrecen World Cup (Category B), to be held between March 14 and 17 in Debrecen, Hungary.

The main challenges for the gymnasts are the ART Doha World Challenge Cup, to be held between March 26 and 29 in Qatar, and Slovenia's ART Ljubljana World Challenge Cup, to be held between April 18 and 21.

Anti-doping forum held in Ha Noi

Regional experts shared experiences and discussed plans to prevent doping at a conference that opened yesterday in Ha Noi.

Hosted by the Southeast Asia Regional Anti-Doping Organisation, the conference was attended by representatives of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and member countries.

Experts reviewed their countries' anti-doping activities in 2013, especially in the recent 27th Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar, the region's most important sports competition.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Lam Quang Thanh, deputy head of the Viet Nam Sports Administration, said that being one of the official members of the WADA since 2004 represented Viet Nam's commitment to strictly following anti-doping rules.

The Viet Nam Anti-Doping and Sports Medicine Agency, established in 2012, aims to crack down on the use of banned drugs and make the sports industry more transparent.

Thanh, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Olympics Committee, confirmed that Viet Nam's government was determined to improve supervision in preparation for upcoming events that it will host, such as the Asian Beach Sports Games in 2016 and the Asian Games 2018.

Representatives will take part in a two-day doping test management training session starting today in the capital city.

Carom billiards comp opens in Binh Thuan

Binh Thuan Province's Three-Cushion Carom Billiards Open kicked off in the province's gymnasium yesterday.

The three-day event attracted 48 players from nine cities and provinces, including HCM City, Da Nang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Khanh Hoa, and Binh Dinh.

According to Ngo Minh Chinh, director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this is the first time Binh Thuan has held the event, which has attracted the nation's leading aces, Ly The Vinh, Duong Anh Vu, Ngo Dinh Nai and Tran Quyet Chien.

The best players will be selected for the National Sports Games and National Billiards Tournament next month in Binh Dinh.

Binh Duong face test of progress

Becamex Binh Duong, which is enjoying a renaissance of late, will face a test when it plays Hoang Anh Gia Lai in the Eximbank V-League 2014's seventh-round match today at Pleiku city.

Binh Duong won two recent matches to move from a disappointing second-bottom place to sixth position on the table with seven points. This came as Nguyen Thanh Son replaced Nguyen Minh Dung

Binh Duong's victories over Dong Nai and Hung Vuong An Giang, with the same score 4-1, should not be considered a measure of the strength of Son's team as its opponents are not strong enough to expose the former two-time champions' weaknesses.

Gia Lai, however, is not in a better spot although it is obviously a worthy opponent.

It would be jumping to conclusions to say that Gia Lai is not a tough opponent after its loss to in-form Quang Ninh, given that South Korean coach Choi Kyum-yun's team will be playing at home with the most prolific striker Timothy Anjembe in the front line.

Elsewhere, Hai Phong face a huge task of ending a run of bad form, losing two recent matches and falling towards the bottom. Their opponent today is the returning SHB Da Nang, which received a timely boost with a 2-1 victory over Nghe An five days ago.

The remaining game today see Nghe An standing a good chance of stopping its losing streak when they play bottom-ranked An Giang, which has only picked up one point out of five matches.

As for tomorrow, despite the absence of playmaker Natia Ceh, who has received three yellow cards, Thanh Hoa are still likely to maintain its perfect start to the season and extend its winning run to six when they play Dong Tam Long An, which have yet to win a single game, drawing only three out of six.

And Dong Nai will take on Quang Ninh in a match that is six of one and half a dozen of the other.

While Dong Nai's coach Tran Binh Su can draw encouragement from last week's away win at Hai Phong, newcomers Quang Ninh have not tasted defeat in the past five rounds and currently sit at second with 11 points.