Vietnam ranks fourth at ASEAN Para Games 2017
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Vietnam won a total of 161 medals, including 40 gold, standing fourth in the medal tally after seven competition days of the ninth ASEAN Para Games in Malaysia.
The
Vietnamese delegation of 142 athletes with disability vied for medals in eight
events, including swimming, track-and-field, weightlifting, chess, badminton, boccia,
football for the visually-impaired and table tennis.
Besides the golds, the Vietnamese team brought home 61 silver and 60 bronze medals.
The number of Vietnamese athletes was only 42.5 percent of that of the
Malaysian team, 72 percent of the Indonesian team and 48 percent of the Thai
team.
Although
the country only participated in half out of a total of 16 events, its athletes
broke 11 Games’ records. Notably, Vo Thanh Tung broke three records and Trinh
Thu Bich Nhu set two new ones, all in swimming.
The
gold medals mainly came in athletics and swimming, with 17 and 15 medals,
respectively. It means Vietnam is on the right track in training its athletes for
Paralympic events.
All athletes have shown their willpower and overcome challenges, said
Nguyen Ngoc Anh, head of the Vietnamese team at the competition.
The ASEAN Para Games is a biannual multi-sport event held after every
Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) for ASEAN athletes with physical
disabilities.
The ASEAN Para Games 2017, which will last until September 23, has seen
the participation of all 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, along with Timor
Leste.-VNA