The two new champions of the 22nd SEA Games are Hue sports athletes, Hoang Thi Bao Tram
Beautiful flowers
Since the 20th SEA Games, 5 female athletes of Thua Thien Hue sports have had the honor to stand on the highest podium of the Southeast Asian sports arena: Ha Kieu Trang, Do Thi Bong, Hoang Thi Bao Tram, Tran Thi Yen Hoa and Nguyen Thi My Hanh.
Ha Kieu Trang to date has been a monument of Thua Thien Hue Karatedo. As an excellent student of coach Le Van Thanh, Ha Kieu Trang has proved to be outstanding in the provincial tournaments and then the national Karate tournaments. The Hue girl excellently earned a gold in the 60kg weight category at the 20th SEA Games and a team gold in team Kumite at the 21st SEA Games.
At the 22nd SEA Games, the golden girl from Hue sprang a big surprise upon snatching a gold in team Kumite and an individual gold in 60kg. Little is known of the fact that at the 22nd SEA Games in Hanoi, Ha Kieu Trang competed as an officer on a mission.
Previously, after the 21st SEA Games came to an end in December 2001, Ha Kieu Trang decided to retire from her career as an athlete to shift to coaching. However, in March 2003, with the encouragement from the leaders of the provincial sports sector, Ha Kieu Trang returned to the competition mat.
For a sports athlete, it is tough coming back after just a month off from training; further, Trang has been off for more than one year. But with her class, only after 10 months of re-training did Ha Kieu Trang at age 26 affirm her class and become the "golden girl" of Vietnam Karate...
and Do Thi Bong (right). Photo: thanhnien.com
The 22nd SEA Games also saw two new champions who are athletes of Hue sports, Do Thi Bong and Hoang Thi Bao Tram. In chess, female chess player Hoang Thi Bao Tram excellently won 2 golds in fast chess and standard chess. This can be said to be the expected achievement of Hue girl because at an earlier time, Hoang Thi Bao Tram claimed the high prizes at the world chess tournament and the Asian chess championship.
The most unexpected was the gold medal won by track and field female athlete Do Thi Bong because many experts forecast that in 800m, it was difficult for any other athletes to surpass Pham Dinh Khanh Doan. But the girl from Phu Vang rice-growing district, with clumsy but speedy paces, surpassed her senior to conquer the important track of the athletics queen sports - 800m running. Bong especially beat the SEA Games record at this distance...
After the 22nd SEA Games in Hanoi, it was not until 7 SEA Games, then the 29th SEA Games in 2017, that Thua Thien Hue sports through athlete Tran Thi Yen Hoa regained the gold in the women's 100m hurdles. This was the precious 100m hurdles gold of Vietnamese athletics after 22 years since Vu Bich Huong was crowned at the 18th SEA Games in 1995.
Born and raised in Nam Dinh, Tran Thi Yen Hoa grew up in the military sports environment, attended university in Da Nang. Hue is where she fell in love with athletics and then shone to bring glory to the Ancient Capital sports.
Most recently, at the 30th SEA Games, athlete Nguyen Thi My Hanh of Thua Thien Hue showed her class in the women's 62kg category in Southeast Asia when she contributed to the Vietnamese sports team 1 gold in freestyle wrestling. The girl from Sia - Quang Dien land with the Thu Le wrestling festival in early spring is also the first wrestling athlete to bring the SEA Games gold medal to Thua Thien Hue sports...
Joy awaited
SEA Games 31 is approaching, as the host country, Vietnam sports will aim to lead the medal table.
According to Mr. Bui Thanh Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports, “At this 31st SEA Games, Thua Thien Hue sports will feature 4 female athletes, Nguyen Thi My Hanh and Nguyen Thi My Trang in wrestling, Duong Thi Quynh Nhu in Judo and Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhi in archery. In addition, there is also the presence of coach Chu Minh Tuan in Jujitsu, and football player Ho Thanh Minh also has great hope of being selected for the national U23 team..."
Like the previous SEA Games, this time Hue sports pin their hope on the girls. Among the four female athletes participating in the 31st SEA Games, wrestler Nguyen Thi My Hanh and Judo athlete Duong Thi Quynh Nhu joined in the previous SEA Games, and both left their mark with a gold by My Hanh and 1 bronze by Quynh Nhu.
The first appearance in the region's large sports arena notwithstanding, the other two rookie athletes, My Trang (My Hanh's younger sister) and Thanh Nhi, overflow with hope to win medals.
At the National Excellent Archery Championship in early March in Hue, Thanh Nhi went down in the history of archery of Vietnamese sports when she became the first athlete to earn 5 golds, 1 individual silver at the national tournament. Thanh Nhi's outstanding achievements show that she will be a great hope for Vietnam's archery this time.
As for wrestler Nguyen Thi My Trang, according to the wrestling team coach Dinh Van Kien: "Hanh is strong on attacking, lifting, winning outright. Trang’s defense is superior to the deliberately-protracting fight style. Both of them are the "treasures" of Hue sports..." The specifications show that My Trang is also a strong wrestler like her elder sister.
In terms of the qualifications and recent performance of the 4 girls, hopefully, all 4 names Hanh, Trang, Nhu, Nhi will win golds at this SEA Games. Moreover, with the tradition of the fair sex at the vanguard of scooping the SEA Games golds for more than 2 decades, once again, Thua Thien Hue sports await a new medal harvest from the "Golden Girls".
By PHI TAN