Top Vietnamese swimmers Nguyen Thi Anh Vien and Hoang Quy Phuoc will compete in the 38th Southeast Asian (SEA) Age-Group Swimming Championship, which started on June 6 in Singapore.

Seventeen-year-old female Vien, who has returned home from the United States, is set to shine in her favourite events, 200 metre backstroke and 400 metre medley, while Phuoc will hopefully win gold in the men's 200-metre freestyle event.

At last year's 27th SEA Games in Myanmar, Vien won three gold medals and Phuoc won one gold.

Vien has become the first Vietnamese swimmer winning a berth to play in the 400-metre medley event at the World Swimming Championships in Russia in 2015.

She showed off her amazing talent by winning four gold and two silver medals at the recent 2014 Florida Swimming Spring Senior Championship in Orlando, Florida. She then continued to stun the US swimming scene by bagging four more gold and two additional silver medals from her six registered events at the 2014 NASA Junior National Championship.

Phuoc also topped the 2014 National Short Course Swimming Championships by winning 15 gold medals.

The 38th edition event will see Singapore play host to nine other participating SEA countries for the various swimming events in three age categories: 16–18; 14–15; and 13 and under.

A total of 263 athletes will be competing in the tournament, with 73 gold medals up for grabs.

Vietnamese masters claim victory at regional chess champs

Vietnamese masters dominated the ASEAN Age Group Chess Championships, which is being held at Macau, after the first rounds.

FIDE Women's Master Nguyen Thi Mai Hung on June 4 won over FIDE Master Hafiz Arif Abdul of Indonesia in the U20 category.

The Vietnamese, who has just collected the last standard to become an International Women's Grandmaster, will next face teammate Nguyen Anh Khoi in the second round.

Khoi defeated Ruaya Virgen Gil of the Philippines on June 4. The world U10 champion is currently only 12 years old.

Another Vietnamese in this pool is Dang Hoang Son. He also bagged a win over Ye Jianmeng from China. He will face Foo Zhi Rong Benjamin of Singapore next.

Vietnam also triumphed in all other age categories except for the boys' U16.

The masters will compete in nine rounds, with the finals scheduled on June 16 at the Cotai Sands Conference Centre.

National junior karatedo event to kick off

The National Junior Karatedo Championships is scheduled to begin on Saturday in the central province of Thua Thien Hue.

Martial artists under age groups 14 – 15, 16 – 17 and 18 – 22 will compete in both kumite (combat) and kata (performance) discipline to vie for medals in individual and men's and women's team events.

The best athletes will be selected to the national team.

The tourney will end on June 15. 

VNN/VNS/ND