Athlete Pham Van To (right) practices prior to the 2017 Southeast Asian Championship
Three hopefuls
On November 20, coach Dinh Van Kien, Head of Department of Wrestling of Thua Thien Hue Province, and his students came to Bac Ninh to join in the troop of national athletes to prepare for the 2017 Southeast Asia Championship. It is good news that this year, Hue has three athletes in the team. Nguyen Thi My Hanh, Pham Van Co and Nguyen Van Trong, have been selected into the shortlist (the athletes of Hue compete from November 24 to November 25).
Hue’s wrestling team is not a big name in the national wrestling circle, but the Department of Wrestling (under General Department of Sports and Physical Training) clearly has appropriate reasons to shortlist the old capital’s wrestlers: Nguyen Thi My Hanh (class 60kg) and Pham Van Co (class 57kg), who were the winners of two gold medals at the National Freestyle and Classical Wrestling Championship held in Thai Nguyen in October 2017. The two athletes also maintain excellent their performance as Pham Van Co has been the champion of the 57kg class in the country for three years. Meanwhile, professional experts highly evaluate Nguyen Thi My Hanh, a really good medal hunter, who won the historic silver medal at the Asian Youth Championship in June 2017 - an unprecedented achievement of Hue’s wrestling.
With regard to Nguyen Van Trong, although he won only the bronze medal in the national championship this year, he is also a hopeful, given his experience and frequent training in the national team. In the last championships, Nguyen Van Trong always showed his talent as one of the athletes who was a good medal winner in the two weight classes of 61kg and 63kg, including the gold medals of 2016 championships. Coach Dinh Van Kien, Head of Department of Wrestling of Thua Thien Hue province, shared that Nguyen Van Trong’s performance over the last time was quite good. If he can step up his last achievement, this is also an athlete from whom we can expect a medal at the Southeast Asian Championship this time.
It is known that the Southeast Asian arena is tough and to make an achievement is not simple. Nevertheless, at the present time, all the three athletes from Hue’s wrestling team have all the necessary qualities: experience, high performance and desire to contribute. In addition, the fact that they have many times competed with international rivals makes their fans believe in them.
Realization of a common dream
By November 2017, most Hue sports teams have almost finished their tournaments, so the fact that three wrestling athletes of Hue enter the Southeast Asian Wrestling Championship becomes the focus for those who love sports. At this point, Hue sports fans want the answer to the question: "To what extent of success will Hue sports teams achieve by the end of 2017?"
The year 2017 has been a great victory for Hue sports with three gold medals (track and field, and karatedo) at SEA Games 29. At the same time, Taekwondo and wrestling teams also won medals in the Asian Youth Championship (wrestling silver medalist Nguyen Thi My Hanh, and Taekwondo bronze medalist Do Thi Thanh Ngan). If success comes at the Southeast Asian Championship, it is definitely a wonderful ending for Hue’s sports this year.
Story and photo: Huu Phuc