Thanh Nhi at a training session

To the "big sea" for the first time

In mid-November, archer Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhi (Hue archery) and 9 Vietnamese athletes (2 women, 7 men) were present in Bangladesh to compete against more than 120 athletes from 14 countries at the Asian Archery Championship 2021 (that took place from November 14 to 19). On the first day of competition, with 320 points scored, Thanh Nhi entered the top 10 athletes taking the lead in the all-round one-string 70m event.

Actually, Thanh Nhi's score together with the 10th place is not high, but against two female teammates, Do Thi Anh Nguyet, Ha Thi Ngoc ranked 19th and 22nd respectively, of whom Anh Nguyet is invested to join in the Olympics, or more broadly, ranked above dozens of athletes from other countries, you can partly see the ability and effort of the Ancient Capital’s archer

Thanh Nhi's ability and effort mentioned are because, after 6 years of joining the archery village, this is the first time Thanh Nhi has competed abroad at the most prestigious tournament on the continent. In such arenas, psychology and battle experience are huge advantages, even at times the decisive factors in success or failure. And Thanh Nhi is lacking in such accumulations

Team of Vietnamese athletes (right) at the opening ceremony of the Asian Archery Championship 2021

In archery, for the all-round event in which Thanh Nhi and 2 female teammates joined, besides scoring teams and mixed doubles, this event aims to determine the position and classify the core group for the athletes from the top 5 and above to be off the first round of knockout. Concurrently, it offers an advantage for athletes in the top 5 to compete against opponents in low positions, not to compete for medals.

Therefore, although not creating an advantage, the 10th position affords Thanh Nhi more opportunities to compete against the high-class athletes from the friendly country. If Thanh Nhi proves herself capable, her chance to earn a slot for SEA Games, ASIAD … in the long run is quite bright.

Future lies ahead

Established in 2014, at that time, Hue archery had only 3 athletes born in 1998. However, only after 4 months of debut, at the National Youth Archery Championship 2014, did Bich Phuong win a bronze and Minh Thanh and Duc Nam reach the level-one athlete rank.

it is worth mentioning that this first generation of athletes were from other sports: track and field (Minh Thanh), Karatedo (Bich Phuong) and Judo (Duc Nam). And with those achievements, the foreign experts who came to train Hue archery team in the beginning judged that after many years of training the Vietnamese team, this is the first time they have witnessed not only one but three athletes who made amazingly rapid headway.

After the three athletes mentioned above, in 2015, Thanh Nhi joined Hue archery. Only after one year did the girl born in 2001 win the cap for the national youth team and continuously reap a series of remarkable achievements in the arenas.

Trained in a more professional environment, Thanh Nhi quickly displayed her talent in 2017 when she kept pace with the national record in the women's 60m 1-string bow at the national youth championship.

Two years later, Thanh Nhi generated massive publicity at the national championship of strong teams when she smashed the previous record that existed for more than a decade and set a new national record in the one-string 30m-distance bow. Since then, Thanh Nhi has been seen as the driving force behind Hue archery and one of the three best one-string female archers in Vietnam.

It can be seen that with their abilities and characteristics, archery athletes have quite a long life (there are still few archery champions aged 40 – 45 worldwide). Therefore, Nhi’s greater capacity for development and devotion to Hue archery in particular and Vietnam sports in general are lying ahead.

“It's a story of the distant future, but in the short run, after returning from the Asian Archery Championship 2021, regardless of the performances, I myself have to train hard to achieve superb performances at the national championship scheduled to take place in December, thereby, bringing me the opportunity to earn a slot for the SEA Games 31 in 2022", said Nhi.

Story: Han Dang

Photos: Han Dang - Asianarchery

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