Womens football

Phùng Kim Quang competes in the National Athletics Championship in 2020. The teenager expects to win a medal at the SEA Games later this year. Photo courtesy of Phùng Kim Quang

Athletics

Thanh Hà

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam have never won a gold medal in the men’s walking event at the regional Southeast Asian (SEA) Games despite having previously qualified for the Olympics in the sport.

Phùng Kim Quang is on a mission to change that.

Walking was little more than a blip on the Vietnamese sporting radar until siblings Nguyễn Thị Thanh Phúc and Nguyễn Thành Ngưng pocketed gold and bronze in the women’s and men’s races at the 25th Games in 2011.

Since then, with better support, Việt Nam have dominated the women’s discipline with four titles. However, the men’s crown is still out of the reach despite three silver medals.

Teenager Quang is the big Vietnamese hope in the sport after recording some outstanding performances at recent domestic competitions.

He is the record holder of the junior tournament and in the top three of the national championship.

Fate

Quang was born in Ba Vì District, in the outskirts of Hà Nội, in 2003.

The naughty little boy loved and played well in all sports such as badminton, shuttlecock, football and track-and-field. After dominating school competitions he became a member of the district athletics team.

Two years later, Quang was among several boys introduced to the walking event, a new sport in the city in 2015. His coach Nguyễn Văn Toản did not pick him at first but when the team did not have enough athletes, Quang was recruited after a second trial.

But Toản, who coached Phạm Thị Thu Trang to the SEA Games women’s title in 2019, gradually found the thin boy was suitable for the sport in which posture is of prime importance while arm, shoulder and leg actions must be well controlled to ensure balance.

After four years in the sport, Quang grabbed his first gold at the National Youth Athletics Championship and a bronze in the National Athletics Championship in 2019.

A year later, the 17-year-old defended his title at the junior 5,000m event and set a new record of 23min 14.21sec, 11 seconds than the old record of 23:14.32 by Dương Hữu Tín of Nghệ An Province in 2013.

“It is a record but I was not very happy. I expected to walk under 22 minutes but the result was more than 23 minutes. I considered it a failure because I could not do it again as I am overage next year,” Quang told Việt Nam News .

Phùng Kim Quang (right) poses for photos after winning a bronze medal together with the champion Nguyễn Thành Ngưng (centre) and silver holder Võ Văn Vĩnh at the 2020 National Athletics Championship in Hà Nội. Photo webthethao.vn

A month later he finished third with a time of 1:37:03 at the National Athletics Championship’s 20km walk.

Despite his strong effort, Quang who suffered a leg injury, could not surpass senior athletes Nguyễn Thành Ngưng and Võ Xuân Vĩnh at the finish line.

“I was really nervous when competing against such experienced rivals although it was my second time. Ngưng and Vĩnh are my seniors and idols. They have won national and international medals,” said Quang.

“However, I have learnt many things from them. From what they knew, they told me how to get better. Ngưng used to tell me ‘effort does not make success immediately, but if you try hard you will make it’. I have pinned it in my mind and will work harder to get better. I will find success by the end of the road,” he said.

Despite the third-place finish, Quang has been tipped for a big future.

“We will invest in Quang with an expectation that he will bring home regional and continental victories and even further he could reach world level if possible,” said Lại Phúc Lộc, deputy director of the Hà Nội Sports and Training Centre.

“We have set plans to send athletes including Quang to compete in open events in Thailand and Singapore (when the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled). Our goal is that Quang will secure a berth in the national team and have a high result in the coming SEA Games,” he added.

It is a huge job for Quang to vie for the national team slot against tough opponents. Ngưng has won the national title for 11 years in a row along with a SEA Games bronze and became the first and only Southeast Asian walker to win an Olympic berth in 2016. The Đà Nẵng-based athlete has vowed not to retire until he wins a SEA Games gold.

Vĩnh is also a big challenge he has finished behind Ngưng many times. He has even outperformed Ngưng in the SEA Games with three silvers in 2013, 2015 and 2019.

The only thing that Quang has on his side is his youth. He will be 18 while Ngưng 29 and Vĩnh 30 at the coming Games.

“My current result does not push me to the national senior team. But it will be my target now. I will have to improve my strength and technique. I also have to decrease my time because I want not only to be part of the coming big tournament but also win a medal,” Quang said. VNS

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, group G teams competing in World Cup Asian qualifiers will play their final matches at a centralized venue. United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Thailand are both candidates to host the remaining matches, with a high chance Asian Football Confederation would choose the former, which can fulfill all requirements pertaining to stadiums, training locations, accommodation as well as Covid-19 prevention measures.

At a meeting with assistant coaches on Wednesday, Park said: “We must prepare right away. First we must analyze our opponents Indonesia, Malaysia and UAE. Second, we mush research weather conditions in UAE. I will ask Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to select a training location with similar weather as UAE.”

In summer, the weather in UAE is known to be very hot and humid. Playing football under such conditions could drain player stamina at a fast rate.

The national team is expected to gather for training in May. They will play Indonesia on June 7, before clashing with Malaysia on the 11th and UAE on the 15th.

Vietnam is topping group G with 11 points in five unbeaten games. The Golden Dragons need at least seven points in their last three games to secure a place in the next qualification round.

“The goal is so that we can get a card to the final round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia,” said the head coach.

Currently, after five matches, the Vietnamese team has 11 points, ranking first in Group G. It is likely that the Korean coach and his players are aiming to defeat Indonesia and Malaysia.

Of these two rivals, if Indonesia has been eliminated, Malaysia will no longer have the home advantage because the remaining matches of Group G will be held in one place, perhaps in the United Arab Emirates or Thailand.

According to the schedule announced earlier by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Vietnamese team will face Indonesia on June 7, Malaysia on June 11 and the United Arab Emirates on June 15.

“In 2021, the Vietnamese football team will play in some important tournaments and they are great challenges. Our success is in the past, but now the team must look to the future,” the coach said.

“This is a busy year, so we will have to allocate strength in major tournaments such as the World Cup qualifiers, the Asian U23 qualifiers, the SEA Games and AFF Cup,” he added.

The Korean coach admitted that he and his team would do their best to fulfill the goals.

Regarding the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, if the United Arab Emirates is chosen as the host, Vietnam and three other Southeast Asian teams in the group will have to play in extreme weather conditions. Their matches will take place in June, the peak of the summer heatwave in the Middle East. In 2020, there were days when the temperature there reached 43 degrees Celsius.

In another development, the Vietnamese team will not have to be isolated when they arrive at the place where the remaining three matches of the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup will be held. However, the players will be regularly tested for Covid-19 before and during the tournament.

Huy Phong

All five local cases, numbered 2478-2482, were already quarantined when detected with the novel coronavirus.

The two imported cases, patients 2476 and 2477, are women aged 23 in Ho Chi Minh City. They had been quarantined February 28 on entering the country via the Ha Tien International Border Gate in the southern province of Kien Giang.

With three cases in the morning, Vietnam recorded 10 new cases Wednesday. The number of community transmissions since January 28 is now at 870, led by Hai Duong with 689 cases, followed by Quang Ninh (61), HCMC (36) and Hanoi (35).

Ten of the localities have gone nearly 20 days without any local transmission, including HCMC and Quang Ninh, and the latter reopened its Van Don International Airport Wednesday.