Vietnamese athlete Le Tu Chinh, who has emerged as the queen of sprint of the Southeast Asian (SEA) region, will undergo training in the United States this year.

Le Tu Chinh (left) competes in the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia.

Chinh will train at the IMG Academy Track & Field in Florida until 2020, with annual expenditure of some VND2 billion (US$87,000), according to the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Chinh is undergoing this intensive training in the United States hoping to earn a ticket to compete at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Japan.

Chinh will be accompanied to the United States by coach Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong

At the SEA Games which concluded in Malaysia last month, Chinh fiercely dominated the short dashes, winning the 100m in 11.56 and 200m in 23.32, beating Malaysia’s Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, who was second in both events with times of 11.74 and 23.64, respectively.

The unstoppable 20-year-old then teamed up with Nguyen Thi Mong Tuyen, Tran Thi Yen Hoa and Do Thi Quyen to win the 4x100m in a time of 43.88, a Games record.

Chinh also bagged the gold medal in the women’s 200m sprint at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships, held in HCM City last year. 

VNS