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| Thua Thien Hue athletes receiving medals at the National Youth Taekwondo Championship - CJ 2023 |
Good signal from youth tournament
Recently, the National Youth Taekwondo Championship - CJ 2023 has taken place in Hanoi (from July 9 to 13). Surmounting the difficulties, the young Taekwondo team of Thua Thien Hue entered the tournament with 1 coach, 6 young athletes, and 4 athletes recruited from the socialization budget, including 9 individual competition events, 1 kata event, and 1 team event.
As a result, the young Taekwondo team of Thua Thien Hue earned 5 medals. Ho Thi Thanh Thao (age 14, over-59kg category ) and Tran Thi Ni (age over 17, over-49kg category ) both won silvers. Nguyen Thi Yen (age under 17, 55kg category) and Vo Thien Kim (age over 17, kata) both got bronzes.
In addition, U17 male and female teammates Le Thi Hong Phuong, Nguyen Thi Huynh Suong, Le Tran Tuan Kiet, and Nguyen Duc Huy added 1 bronze to Hue's overall achievement at this tournament.
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| Young female faces are known as the core of the sport in the next year or two |
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Phap, coach of the Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo team, although they did not win any gold, this was a successful tournament for the youth team in the context where they rarely took part in tournaments, lacked training conditions, tools, and electronic armor. The National Youth Taekwondo Championship - CJ 2023 has a very large scale, attracting more than 1,000 athletes and coaches from 47 teams across the country. Among them are famous athletes from localities with strong movements such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Binh Duong.
The outstanding athletes at this year's tournament will be selected for the national youth team to play in the upcoming international tournaments such as the Asian Youth and Junior Championship in Beirut, Lebanon in September, in readiness to top up the force of the national team.
In 2023, Taekwondo Vietnam keeps aiming for the two prime targets: competing at the Asian Games - ASIAD 2023 in Hangzhou, China in September and winning the ticket to the 2024 Summer Olympics - Paris Olympics.
Team topped up
In 2016, at the National Youth Taekwondo Championship, the Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo team won 8 medals (1 gold). With a gold in the women's 63kg weight category, athlete Do Thi Thanh Ngan entered the list of athletes participating in the World Young Taekwondo Championship. Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo continued to make a tremendous impression when in 2017, it earned 2 golds at the Southeast Asian Championship, and 7 golds at the national youth tournament, national cup tournament, and national championship. At the 2018 Open Southeast Asian Champion, Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo scooped 1 gold.
Also this year, Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo scooped 9 more golds and in 2019, continued to win 4 golds at the national youth championship, national cup championship, and national championship.
On account of the COVID-19 pandemic and many objective and subjective factors, Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo has recently shown the signs of a slowdown in achievement. In 2022, the division merely participated in 3 tournaments, and the achievements were not really impressive. In the National Club Championship, Hue Taekwondo won only 1 gold. As for the youth championship, only 3 bronzes were got. Participating in the National Games in the hope of a gold, but unfortunately, Ancient Capital Taekwondo scooped only 1 individual bronze and 1 team bronze.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Phap, under difficult circumstances, Ho Thi Thanh Thao, Tran Thi Ni, Nguyen Thi Yen or Vo Thien Kim are known as the promising young faces of Hue Taekwondo. Tran Thi Ni is one of 9 athletes selected to compete at the 2023 National Gymnastics and Sports Games. Ni has a good body shape, long strides suitable for long-range play, and especially a steady competitive mentality. She is regarded as a core athlete of the division in the next one or two years.
Long-term targets
Back to the National Youth Taekwondo Championship - CJ 2023. Notably, at this tournament, the method of scoring by electronic armor is applied to the athletes competing at the age of 15 - 17 and 18 - 20 in similarity to the current international tournaments to help athletes get used to standard competition conditions.
According to the division coaches in Thua Thien Hue, the training conditions remain limited: the lack of facilities, modern means of competition such as electronic armor, and multi-faceted investment, which has impacted the performance, training, and competition efficiency of athletes.
Investment difficulties are waiting to be dealt with by the provincial sports sector. Devising the strategy for Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo to regain performance is the responsibility placed on the training board of this sport. The direction to focus on young people to create the next generation is appropriate, but it is needed to have an effective, long-term approach associated with learning from past experience.
It comes as no surprise when Taekwondo is chosen by Thua Thien Hue as a key sport for group 1 to focus on in 2021 - 2025, along with wrestling, athletics, chess, karate, and swimming-diving. A survey indicated that the province has up to 30 Taekwondo clubs spreading widely in 9 districts, towns, city, and departments, drawing more than 1,000 students to register for regular practice. Thua Thien Hue is also a destination for many Taekwondo tournaments. This paves the way for building, developing, and elevating Thua Thien Hue Taekwondo.