VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has many outstanding track-and-field athletes, but the country has not won any ticket to the Olympic 2012. The national athletics team is practicing very hard in a bid to have at least one representative in London.
According to the latest announcement of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA), at the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand this May, the 200m and 1,500 races will be replaced by 100m and 800m races.

This is good news for Vietnam because 100m and 800m running are the forte of Vietnam’s leading runners--Vu Thi Huong and Truong Thanh Hang. The two athletes expect to satisfy standard B of Olympic at this competition.

Hang and her team are drilling in the central city of Da Nang. They will go to China’s Kunming for a short training course in April.

Vu Thi Huong is also being trained at home right now and she will go to Germany for a 2-3 week training course.

The Asian Grand Prix is among several tournaments where athletes can seek tickets to the Olympic.

After this event, Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc and Nguyen Thanh Ngung will compete at the Asian Walking Championships 2012 in Japan, to seek the Olympic tickets.

Phuc and Ngung, who come from the same family, are highly appreciated by experts. Phuc won a gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games 2011. Her record, 1.43.22 hours, is only 1.5 minutes less than the Olympic standard.

Previously, three leading track-and-field athletes of Vietnam--Truong Thanh Hang, Vu Thi Huong and Nguyen Dinh Cuong failed to attain standard B of the Olympic 2008. The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) granted two exceptional tickets to Huong and Cuong. These tickets were for developing countries that did not have any athletes who met standard B. Both athletes did not perform well at the Olympic 2008.

Experts said that runners Huong and Hang are able to break Olympic standard. This year’s Olympic is the last chance for the golden generation of Vietnamese track-and-field athletes before they say goodbye to elite sports.

S. Tung