The national badminton team will leave for Qingdao , China nextweek to participate in the Badminton Asia Championships to be kicked offon April 17.
High hopes have been placed on topplayer Nguyen Tien Minh who has returned to the world top ten after asuccessful showing at the Australian Grand Prix Gold Open last week.
Minh is seeded No 7 in the men's singles event behind four hostrepresentatives including world No 2 Lin Dan, No 3 Chen Long, No 5 ChenJin and No 11 Du Pengyu as well as Indonesia 's No 9 Simon Santoroand No 12 Taufik Hidayat.
On the women's side, Vu Thi Trang will have to earn her place in the tournament by starting in the qualifying round.
World No 145 Trang, who won a bronze medal at the Singapore YouthOlympics, will face strong rival Lydia Li Ya Cheah of Malaysia, world No98, in her first match.
Her teammate Nguyen Thi Senmust over come Hwang Hye-youn of the Republic of Korea for herown berth in the main round.
Trang and Sen will pair in the women's doubles and play Wang Pei Ron/Hsieh Pei Chen of Chinese Taipei in their first game.
The men's doubles event will see duo Bui Bang Duc and Dao Manh Thangcompeting against Yohanes Rendy Sugiarto and Afiat Yuris Wirawan fromIndonesia in the first main round.
The final matches are scheduled on April 22 with a bonus of 150,00 USD up for grabs to the winners.-VNA