Nguyen Thi Thuy is expected to bring home a gold medal in pencak silat at the 29th SEA Games. (Photo: zing.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam's pencak silat artists strive to pocket three gold medals at the ongoing 29th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Malaysia.
At the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games two years ago in Singapore, Vietnamesepencak silat martial artists defeated strong rivals from Indonesia and Malaysiato win three golds, five silvers, two bronzes—and took the lead in the event.
At the Games in Malaysia this week, the Vietnamese team will compete withoutsome of its strongest athletes from 2015 and must navigate changes to thecompetition rules. But they still hope to come out on top with a crew of freshfaces.
Vietnam will send 20 martial artists to the Games. Fourteen players willcompete in the combat event, while six will compete in the performancecategory.
The three gold medalists in 2015 were Hoang Quang Trung in seni (performance)category, and Diep Ngoc Vu Minh and Hoang Thị Loan in tanding (combat).
This time, only Loan remains on the team.
However, Malaysia eliminated the women’s 60kg combat division in whichLoan bagged gold medal in Singapore, so she will have to take part in the 65kgcategory with unknown rivals.
“Although Vietnam only competes in four categories in the women’s combatevents, they are still stronger than players of Malaysia and Indonesia,” said headcoach Nguyen Van Hung.
But Hung said the competition changes and the shuffling of the team’s rosterdon’t necessarily preclude a repeat victory.
“At the Games two years ago, martial artists who had been expected to gain goldperformed unsuccessfully. Minh, Trung and Loan were suddenly crowned with success.So in pencak silat, competitors may win without a long record of victoriesdistinguishing them from others,” said Hung.
“We have a team whose members are equal in quality to the 2015team. This is a factor to help the team be confident to fulfill their goalof earning three gold medals,” he added.
Most of Vietnam’s martial artists are young aces, competing in the Games forthe first time.
“Of course, only outstanding players are called to the national team. They willsuffer from the pressure of taking part in the largest regional sports eventfor the first time. However, I believe they will overcome and play well,” saidHung.
Nguyen Thi Thuy is expected to bring home a gold medal in the performanceevent.
Thuy of Hanoi team, 26, has trained in in pencak silat for more than 10 years.She has won world and Asian tournaments, but only gained one silver medal inthe SEA Games in 2015.
She has delayed having a child until she completes her goal of earning alltitles from world to region event.
Besides Thuy, the Vietnam team includes veterans who are world champions, suchas Le Sy Kien, Nguyen Duy Tuyen, Tran Dinh Nam and Nguyen Nguyen Thai Linh.These players alongside relative newcomers are expected to shine at in thematches that will take place from August 24-29.-VNA
