VietNamNet Bridge – With her continued success in 2014, gymnastics queen Phan Thi Ha Thanh has proved herself to be one of Vietnam’s major hopes in the hunt for gold medals at the 17th Asian Games (Asiad).

Gymnast athlete Phan Thi Ha Thanh – File photo

Ha Thanh and her teammates suffered strong disappointment last year as gymnastics was unfortunately excluded from the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games’ competition programme. However, Thanh and other members of the national gymnastics team were compensated with a lot of experience, which they have accumulated through many other important international tournaments.

Good news has come thick and fast to Vietnamese sports since the beginning of 2014, as gymnastics athletes struggled to bring home commanding success on the global arena. The most outstanding deed of the gymnastics team was their collection of two gold, one silver and one bronze won at the Grand Prix Osijek FIG World Challenge Cup 2014, with top female gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh as the only gold medalist.

Maintaining constant practice and training regimens has brought Thanh to continuous shining performances. Ha Thanh began an amazing 2014 with a gold medal in the vault and a fifth-place finish on balance beam at the Korea World Top 2014 competition in Incheon. Also in April, she rocked the gymnastics world, competing in style to snatch two gold medals on vault and balance beam at the 2014 Grand Prix Osijek. The supreme finish at those world-level arenas is a convincing evidence of Ha Thanh’s level, making her one of the country’s brightest hopes for gold at the 17th Asiad.

According to Thanh’s direct trainer, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, despite such positive signals, Thanh and her teammates will have to apply an extremely vast pressure at the coming Games, especially in the women’s vault event, which is Thanh’s strength. This discipline demands high accuracy in technique and absolute patience in spirit, thus requiring extremely thorough preparation and stable mind.

Ha Thanh has been undergoing a special programme with increasing levels of difficulty in her training exercises.

Phan Thi Ha Thanh, however, is not the only hope of the national gymnastics team. There are still many other promising names that deserve to be entrusted, including Pham Phuoc Hung and Nguyen Ha Thanh.

Nguyen Ha Thanh became widely known among gymnastics lovers as he vaulted to gold at the 2013 Grand Prix Osijek in Croatia, while Pham Phuoc Hung made his name with a supreme finish on the parallel bars at the 2013 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia and another silver medal in the same category at the 2014 Grand Prix Osijek. Given these outstanding achievements, the two athletes are definitely able to create surprises in Incheon in the coming time.

The national gymnastics team are scheduled to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland from July 23 to August 3, which functions as a perfect warm-up for Vietnamese athletes ahead of the 17th Asiad. Following the Incheon campaign, the team will continue training for another important tournament – the 45th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China, which takes place in October.

Vietnam will send 64 athletes to the upcoming 17th Asian Games (ASIAD) to be held in Incheon, the Republic of Korea (RoK), from September 19 to October 4.

The country will compete in 20 out of the 36 events. At the 16th ASIAD in China, the nation gained one gold, 17 silvers and 15 bronzes.

VNA/Nhandan