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| Thanh Nhi continues her new journey with a full competition schedule. Photo provided by the character |
Worthy of being an outstanding citizen
At year end, I suddenly had an appointment to meet Thanh Nhi in Hue. Nhi said she had just returned from Hanoi on the weekend to sit the examination to be on the payroll, and a day later she had been back to Hanoi. It has been many years since she became a member of the national archery team, The beautiful female archer has lived mostly in the capital. Currently, Thanh Nhi is studying at the University of Physical Education and Sports, so her schedule is very busy. The first meeting gave me a special impression. Besides the lovely face and tall strong physique, Thanh Nhi talked with grace and openness.
The outstanding citizen of Thua Thien Hue Province entered 2023 with a busy competition schedule. She went abroad to compete in the Asian Cup in Singapore in June, the World Championship in Berlin (Germany), the Asian Games in China in late September, and the Asian Championship in Thailand in early October and November. Besides, she was awarded direct qualification to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Domestically, she competed in the 2023 National Archery Championship in April, the 2023 National Archery Championship in Vinh Long, and the 2023 National Strong Team Championship in Quang Ninh in mid-October. In two tournaments in Vinh Long and Quang Ninh alone, Thanh Nhi's collection of medals was supplemented with 4 golds, 4 silvers, and 3 bronzes.
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| Thanh Nhi's days of hard training. Photo provided by the character |
After 4 years of initiation, in April 2019, Thanh Nhi got her first gold. Four months later, she won a gold medal at the National Strong Team Championship and also beat the 12-year national record of her "senior" Nguyen Thi Huong. Then, for the first time, Thanh Nhi was called up to the national team in 2020. Thanh Nhi had a very striking 2022 competition year when at the National Excellent Archery Championship (March 2022), she became the first archer to earn 5 golds in the individual event.
At the SEA Games 31, Thanh Nhi earned a silver. At the Singapore Archery Open 2022, she won 2 golds. At the 2022 National Sports Games, at year end, she clinched 3 golds and 2 silvers to become the sole sport athlete to appear on the list of 10 outstanding citizens of Thua Thien Hue Province in the 2020 - 2022 period.
Behind the medals
In 2020, the presence in the national archery team was seen as a new starting point for Thanh Nhi's journey away from home, full of hard training. Earlier, in Hue, there were difficulties with equipment and training grounds. Thanh Nhi dreamed of having a bow and was terribly afraid of being "expelled" by soccer players while training at the stadium.
Currently, she has to do her utmost on the shooting range. Thanh Nhi's training schedule at the National Sports Training Center is full, from morning to afternoon and even evening. Aside from honing archery skills, Thanh Nhi and her teammates also have to do physical training with “boring” supplementary subjects such as running or stretching their arms.
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| The gold earned at the ASIA Cup - SHARJAH is the most prestigious medal Thanh Nhi owns. Photo provided by the character |
Her training in archery is quite late, but the easiest to feel from Thanh Nhi is her aspiration to conquer and win. As a member of the national team, Thanh Nhi no longer has worries because she is trained by top expert Park Chae Soon, Korea at a modern shooting range and has access to the latest bows and arrows.
However, Nhi comes under pressure to gain achievements. "No advance is to drop back" because there is always fierce competition. To get ahead, bravery, steady competitive mentality, and even luck are needed. Even failure for Thanh Nhi is a good thing because it is an opportunity to gain experience and "when one door shuts, another opens”.
It's been more than a month, but the feeling of victory with the gold medal at the 2023 National Strong Team Championship remains indescribable for Thanh Nhi. Thanh Nhi's opponent in the final of the women's 70m 1-string bow event was Trieu Huyen Diep, a young and equally gifted athlete. In fact, both sides competed for point by point and in the end had to wait for target center points to decide. With 9 points in the last shot, the archer from Hue won the gold. What a resounding victory! The joy came from Thanh Nhi's determination, bravery, and aspiration to win.
Conquest and back to Hue
Thanh Nhi has an admirable collection of international medals. The gold earned at the ASIA Cup - SHARJAH held in Qatar in late 2022 remains the most prestigious one Thanh Nhi owns. She defeated a very strong opponent of the Korean archery team with a score difference of 6 - 2 to mount the highest honorable podium. Also at this tournament, Thanh Nhi and her teammates won another bronze, making archery history and creating a new "phenomenon" of Vietnamese archery.
The women's single-string archery event with the participation of Thanh Nhi is planned to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Unfortunately, at the 2023 Asian Archery Championship in Bangkok (Thailand), Thanh Nhi and her teammates failed to reach the semi-finals and failed to win a medal, which meant no qualification for Paris.
It is difficult for Thanh Nhi to, with the last opportunity, face top-notch opponents at the World Qualifying Tournament in Turkey in June 2024. Thanh Nhi said she always has a fervent wish for better competition. Along with the desire to participate in the largest archery festival on the planet, Thanh Nhi aspires to win a gold medal at the SEA Games and continental archery tournaments. Thanh Nhi craves to conquer more heights in archery.
Thanh Nhi is striving to study, train, and accumulate skills and knowledge in the days of participating in the national team in order to later return to Hue, join hands in building and taking the local archery sport to new heights. Hue still does not have a professional shooting range. Although Thanh Nhi's first teacher, Lai Dang Quang, and colleagues give attention to investment for better training, they face many difficulties in this very expensive sport.
Thanh Nhi emotionally recollected the first day in her life when she was a 14-year-old girl, a student at Dang Van Ngu Junior Secondary School, who held a bow and was suddenly chosen by the teachers at the Intermediate School of Physical Education and Sports. Since then, she has fallen in love with archery and won a lot of glory from this sport.