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Vietnamese athletics’ top-spot ambition for the upcoming regional Games is posed with significant challenges as, throughout 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hindered Vietnamese athletes from participating in any overseas training courses as well as international competitions. Entering 2021, amidst the complicated evolution of the disease, international track and field tournaments have remained halted without confirmed dates for return, while it remains unknown when the sending of athletes for overseas training will resume. On mass media, Vietnam’s athletics arch-rivals Thailand have also constantly affirmed their determination to reclaim the lost position. Given that fact, the host country of the 31 ^st SEA Games will have to exert much greater efforts if they wish to defend their regional reign.

Last year, as a result of the two COVID-19 outbreaks, Vietnamese athletics only managed to organise two official domestic tournaments, the Speed Cup (Ho Chi Minh City, June) and the National Championships (Hanoi, November). The inability to train and compete overseas significantly affected the performance of athletes. In previous years, most of the national teams chose to train abroad to improve their profession and performance. In fact, practising in the countries with advanced sport levels brings athletes greater excitement and helps them further improve themselves in terms of both psychology and fitness compared to training at home. By engaging in overseas training camps and competitions, Vietnamese athletes will be able to break their limits to reach new heights. Meanwhile, at the present time, due to the pandemic, athletes in most of the events in which Vietnam is capable of securing a Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 berth have yet to achieve the performance indicators as expected. For example, Vietnam currently ranks 17 ^th in the world regarding the 4x400m relay event and stands a chance to make the top 16 teams qualifying for the 2020 Olympics if international performance is improved in 2021. Even so, athletics is not a key sport of Vietnam in the Olympic arena and the real focus of the track and field department in 2021 is on the 31 ^st SEA Games.

Nguyen Thi Oanh breaks the 17-year-old national record in the women’s 10,000m run event at the 2020 National Athletics Championships.

Looking towards the regional Games later this year, Vietnam athletics is completely confident in realising the goal of defending its reign thanks to a team of prominent athletes, such as Le Tu Chinh, who smashed her way to five gold medals at the 2020 National Championships – with two individual titles in the 100m and 200m dash and three team gold medals in the women’s 4x100m, women’s 4x200m and mixed 4x400m disciplines, recording an especially notable time of 11.43 seconds in the 100m distance. Tu Chinh took gold in this event at the 30 ^th SEA Games with 11.54 seconds, 0.14 seconds far from her personal best (11.40 seconds). Another SEA Games 2019 champion, Nguyen Thi Oanh, also scored four gold medals at the National Championships last year and established a new national record in the women’s 10,000m run with a time of 34:08.54, breaking the 17-year-old record set by Doan Nu Truc Van in 2003 (34:48.28). In the men’s medium-distance categories, Duong Van Thai, who won eight SEA Games gold medals, was surprisingly surpassed by 20-year-old Tran Van Dang. Dang’s performance will surely create a big motivation for Duong Van Thai to exert greater efforts at the upcoming 31 ^st SEA Games.

According to experts, in order to top the 31 ^st SEA Games track and field medal tally, Vietnamese athletes will need to secure 17-19 gold medals in a total of 47 events. In the previous Games, the Vietnamese athletics team won 16 golds, four clear of Thailand and five more than that of the Philippines. Thanks to its effective control of COVID-19, Vietnamese athletics is making better preparations for this year’s Games compared to many other countries in the region which are being raged by the pandemic. From the beginning of 2021, coaches and athletes will enjoy a diet costing VND320,000 each per day during their training time at the national team level, which will increase to VND480,000 for a maximum of 90 days prior to official competition. With thorough preparations in the past year as well as in the coming time, athletics and football are the two departments which have been assigned with the biggest tasks and are the most likely to finalise the goal of winning the overall championship title at the 31 ^st SEA Games later this year.

Long jumper Nguyễn Tiến Trọng sets up a new record of 7.98m at the National Athletics Championships in 2019 in HCM City. Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Tiến Trọng

By Thanh Hà

“It is two centimetres.

“Just only two centimetres.

“I will make two centimetres this jump.”

Nguyễn Tiến Trọng thinks about this tiny distance every day in training.

If the long jumper can add the small distance to his personal best, he will become the first Vietnamese athlete to jump 8m and prove he belongs on the world stage.

National record holder

Born in 1997 in Cẩm Giàng District, Hải Dương Province, Trọng was taller and bigger than any of his friends at school.

He was chosen to take part in the provincial track-and-field competitions where he caught the eyes of the Military team’s scouts. He became an athlete when he was 13.

“I am the only one in the family as well as the district pursuing sport. So I think it is a fate that I am ‘engaged’ with athletics,” Trọng told Việt Nam News .

“My height was an advantage when I participated in different school events. I was offered to join basketball and martial arts clubs but athletics is my true love.

“I was only six when I watched the Việt Nam 22nd SEA Games on TV. I had no idea what ‘glory’ meant at that time but was strongly impressed with the way the track-and-field winners were honoured. They received big claps and huge encouragement after winning. It obsessed me. It was the reason why I agreed to join the Military team when invited immediately,” he recalled.

“Coaches had to persuade my parents a lot to let me go, saying that I had potential if I was trained professionally. They seemed okay with some doubts but now they have become my biggest supporters,” he said.

After nearly nine years of training, Trọng has proved his talent.

The man, who was born in the Year of the Buffalo, dominated national underage tournaments and set a record of 7.71m in the long jump before conquering the senior championships since 2016.

He has collected titles from international competitions including open events in Thailand and HCM City in 2019.

Among medals, his most memorable one is the gold at the fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

“Athletes from 44 countries came for titles. As a freshman in international events, I thought I would have no chance for the top three because it was Asia and all the jumpers were strong.

“Competing with no pressure, my leaps after three attempts were better than everyone including title favourites Chan Ming Tai (Hong Kong) and Amila Wijayalath Pedige (Sri Lanka). After the last jump, I was named the winner. It was a great feeling that I still shake when I think about,” he said.

At the 2019 national championship, Trọng confirmed his reign of the national men’s long jump pit with a leap of 7.98m, a new Vietnamese record.

“He is on the cusp of the eight-metre club that not too many athletes can do in the world. His jump is history, challenging the next generation,” said Dương Đức Thủy, head of the Athletics Department of the National Sports Administration.

Thủy was happy with Trọng’s result but reminded him: “You still owe me 2cm. Do what you have to do”.

“It is a little pressure for me,” said Trọng who promised to jump 8m to Thủy during an event in 2018. “It is not an easy tiny gap but I feel I can do better. I consider it a target to reach.”

SEA Games in sight

Long jumper Nguyễn Tiến Trọng competes to defend his title at the National Athletics Championships in 2020 in Hà Nội. Photo toquoc.vn

Trọng was expected to complete his target at the 2020 championship in Hà Nội last November.

However, he could only defend his crown with a humble jump of 7.58m.

“I also believed that I could do it. But a leg injury occurred just 10 days ahead of the tournament that prevented me from jumping my best,” he said.

“I have to try harder this year,” said Trọng referring to local tournaments as well as the 31st SEA Games in winter in Hà Nội.

It will be the third Games of the young lieutenant who has recorded poor results in previous tournaments despite being seeded.

At the 2017 event, he finished fifth and two years later he also could not join the top three despite just setting a national record.

“I was inexperienced at the first Games while I was not at my peak in the second one after competing in an international tournament for soldiers,” he explained.

Trọng is one of the athletes tipped to win gold for Việt Nam at the coming Games on home turf as his current results are similar to the top three of the Manila event two years ago.

“My coaches and I are working hard to improve and sustain my ability at a high level. The eight-metre distance is the first step and then I have to do better so that I could set my sights on continental events,” he said.

“I do not set a specific target which will make me tired and nervous but I do not want the gold medal to leave Việt Nam this year,” he said.

“I am trying hard every day to be the second Vietnamese male long jump gold medalist in history.”

Việt Nam have won only one SEA Games gold medal in men’s long jump to date. The first went to Bùi Văn Đông who triumphed in 2017. VNS

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