Foreign athletes join Dien Bien Phu cycling tourney

Twenty two teams from Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia are set to participate in a cycling tournament from May 1-6 to mark the 60th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu victory over French colonialism.

The information was released by the Vietnam Motor-Bicycle Sports Federation at a press conference in Hanoi on April 24.

The athletes will compete in 11 stages over 6 days, starting off with the first stage around Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, and the last stage around Dien Bien Phu city in Dien Bien province.

The organizing board will present nearly 800 gifts to war veterans and social welfare beneficiary people who directly joined the Dien Bien Phu campaign 60 years ago, in Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Son La, and Dien Bien.

They will also award 120 scholarships to children of Dien Bien armed forces officers. All the prizes and scholarships are worth nearly VND1 billion in total.

Table tennis friendly to kick off in HCM City

The first leg of a friendly table tennis tournament named A Meeting of Top Players will take place today in HCM City.

Twelve players will represent Ha Noi against HCM City in 12 singles and six doubles matches. The second leg will held in Ha Noi.

The tournament will see leading amateur athletes such as Bui Trung Kien, Hoang Quoc Viet, Nguyen Huy Bao and Nguyen Ngoc Thanh Phong take to the courts.

Head of the tournament organising board Nguyen Ngoc Quang. says the event aims to develop the sport in Viet Nam.

Japan beat Viet Nam 1 in women's beach volleyball

Japan beat Viet Nam 1 16-21, 21-19, 15-10 in the opening match of the Asian Women's Beach Volleyball Championships in the northern province of Quang Ninh yesterday.

In a separate match, Viet Nam 2 also went down to Thailand 1 2-0.

The event, which attracted the participation of 14 teams from seven nations and territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, China, Japan and Kazakhstan, will finish tomorrow.

SunTek Sao Viet wins 7th stage of HCM City Cup

HCM City's SunTek Sao Viet team won the time trial event in the seventh stage of the 26th HCM City Television Cycling Cup yesterday.

The team completed the 48km stage in Nha Trang City with a time of 59.48 and a top speed of 48.161kmh, followed by An Giang Plant Protection and ADC-Vinh Long Television.

Dinh Quoc Viet of Sao Viet claimed the yellow jersey with the best overall time of 17:19.39 after seven stages, while Ho Huynh Van An of An Giang Plant Protection held onto the green jersey as the best sprinter with 67 points.

Cyclists will compete in the eighth stage from Nha Trang to Da Lat City today.

Vietnam defeat Guangzhou in a friendly match

Vietnamese women's football team beat Guangzhou's Military team 3-0 in a friendly match in China on April 23.

Nguyen Thi Muon and Nguyen Minh Nguyet scored the goals for the visitors.

The Vietnamese team is in China for a month-long training camp to hone their professional skills before competing in the final round of the upcoming Asian Cup 2014.

As planned, they will play the second match against Guangzhou on April 24 before departing for the Republic of Korea (RoK) on April 26.

After taking on Hyundai on May 1 and May 4, the team will play a friendly match on May 7 with the RoK squad, one of the promising candidates in Group B in the Asian event's final.

They will return to HCM City on May 9 in preparation for the competition due to kick off on May 14.

International women’s beach volleyball tourney kicks off

Fourteen teams from seven nations are competing at an international women’s beach volleyball tournament which was opened in Ha Long city of northern Quang Ninh province on April 25.

The players come from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, China, Japan, Kazakhstan and the host Vietnam.

The three-day annual event forms part of the formal competition system of the Asian Beach Volleyball Confederation.

It is also one of activities of the Quang Ninh Tourism Week, which is slated for the end of April.

The Tourism Week will be spotlighting Ha Long Carnival and packed by other activities such as fireworks and art performances by local and foreign art troupes.

VN player seeded No 3 for Asia Badminton Championships

The organisers of the Badminton Asia Championships have named Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh as the No 3 seed.

Thailand's SEA Games champion Ponsana Boonsak is seeded No 1 and So Wan-ho of the Republic of Korea (RoK) is No 2.

The regional six-day tournament opened in Gimcheon, the RoK, on April 22.

According to a draw conducted recently, Minh will play host athlete Jong Soo-hwang of the RoK in the first-round match of the men's singles category.

His teammates Pham Cao Cuong will face Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. Vietnam has two players in the women's events. Vu Thi Trang will play Thailand's Buranaprasertsuk Porntip, while Le Thu Huyen will meet Lim Yin Fun of Malaysia.

The Vietnamese players will also compete in the doubles events.

Ninh Binh beat Yangon United in AFC Cup

V-League side Vissai Ninh Binh beat Yangon United of Myanmar 4-1 in the last Group G match of the AFC Cup in Myanmar yesterday, despite being under investigation for match-fixing.

The Asian Football Confederation and the Viet Nam Football Federation are co-ordinating the investigation into the allegations of match manipulation in the game between Ninh Binh and Malaysia's Kelantan in the AFC Cup last month.

Though coach Nguyen Van Sy included some of his younger players in the squad, the team played well.

With five wins and one draw, Ninh Binh took the lead in Group G with 16 points. Yangon United finished second with nine points. China's Hong Kong and Malaysia's Kelantan were the runners-up.

Ninh Binh will play either India's Churchill Brothers or Singapore's Home United in the round of 16, while runners-up Yangon United will travel to Indonesia to take on Group E winners Persipura Jayapura.

Nam wins national cup's 25m centrefire pistol event

Bui Quang Nam converted one of two gold medal opportunities at the National Shooting Cup which closed yesterday in Ha Noi.

The host athlete took out the men's individual 25m centrefire pistol event with a score of 584 points.

Military's Ha Minh Thanh finished second on 582 points, closely followed by teammate Dau Van Dong on 581 points.

Unfortunately, Nam's result failed to push his team to the top podium. HCM City seized the team event title after their marksmen secured 1,719 points, 20 more than the Hanoians. The Ministry of Public Security came in third.

The seven-day tournament saw Military top the overall ranking, scoring 11 gold medals.

Ha Noi and Hai Duong finished second and third, respectively.

Five national records were set at the annual event which attracted nearly 190 sportsmen.

Quyen wins sixth stage in HCM City Cycling tournament

Tran Van Quyen won the sixth stage of the 26th HCM City Television Cycling Cup yesterday.

The cyclist with Military Zone 7 triumphed in the 98km stage that runs from Phan Rang-Thap Cham City to Nha Trang City. He covered the distance in 2:23.10 with a top speed of 41.071kmh.

He was followed by Le Nguyet Minh of HCM City's Eximbank and Nguyen Thanh Tam of An Giang Plant Protection.

An Giang Plant Protection's Ho Huynh Van An retained the yellow jersey with the best overall time of 16:19.30 after six stages.

HCM City players triumph at national chess competition

HCM City's players dominated at the National Top Players Chinese Chess Tournament which concluded in Can Tho City on Wednesday.

Truong A Minh took the lead in the men's standard, while Nguyen Minh Nhat Quang triumphed in the men's blitz event.

In the women's side, Nguyen Hoang Yen won both the standard and blitz events.

The event attracted the participation of 60 athletes from 12 teams across the country.

Cuong ousted from Asian badminton championships

Vietnamese player Pham Cao Cuong was ousted from the Badminton Asia Championships in South Korea yesterday.

Cuong lost to former world No 1 Lin Dan of China 21-13, 21-4 in the men's singles second round.

In the men's doubles, the duo of Duong Bao Duc and Nguyen Hoang Nam lost to Shi Longfei and Chen Zhuofu of China 21-17, 21-13.

Tram retains third position at Asian chess event

Female Grandmaster Hoang Thi Bao Tram remained in third place with 4.5 points at the Asian Continental Open Chess Championships in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, yesterday.

Tram retained her spot despite losing to Sukandar Irine Kharisma of Indonesia in the seventh round.

Today, Tram will meet Karavade Eesha of India.

Although Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Hoang Thi Nhu Y and Pham Le Thao Nguyen had four points each, they stood at the 14th, 15th and 16th positions, respectively, because of different auxiliary indices.

Today, An will play Munguntuul Batkhuyag of Mongolia; Y will compete with Abdumalik Zhansaya of Kazakhstan; and Nguyen plays Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Mai Hung who was in 11th place.

In the men's side, International Master Nguyen Duc Hoa was ranked No 18 out of 64 players with four points. He beat Munkhgal Gombosuren of Mongolia yesterday. Today he will meet Ganguly Surya Shekhar of India in the next round.

Grandmasters Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Dao Thien Hai are ranked No 24 and No 26, respectively, with each player having four points. Son will meet Hai today.

The top five from the Asian Open Championships will qualify for the 2015 World Cup. The Asian Women's champion qualifies for the 2015 Women's World Championships.

Hoang wins national shooting gold

Nguyen Duy Hoang of Military team won a gold medal in the men's individual 50m three position event yesterday on the penultimate day of the National Shooting Cup in Ha Noi.

Hoang shot 1,253.1 points, nearly 15 points more than runner-up Duong Anh Quan of Ha Noi. Nguyen Van Quan from Hai Duong came third, scoring 1,237.5 points.

In the team event, Thanh Hoa, which had no representative in the top three of the individual event, took the title, earning 3,407 points. Ha Noi again came second, followed by Military.

In the men's individual 25m sport pistol, Le Doan Cuong from the Public Security team, took the title, bagging 586 points.

HCM City's Pham Xuan Chuyen shot less than three points and came second. Host Bui Quang Nam stayed on third.

After six days of competitions, Military lead the ranking table with 11 gold medals. Ha Noi are closed behind on 10. Hai Duong are third, pocketing six.