Nguyen Thi Tam (right) wins Vietnam’s first gold medal, in the women’s 51kg class, at the Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament that ended on April 10 in Phuket.(Photos of Asian Boxing Confederation) Vietnameseathletes also pocketed one silver and seven bronzes at the, whichlured powerful participants from a number of different countries.
WorldNo 7 Nguyen Thi Tam had no worthy rivals in the women’s 51kg class. In thefinal, she overcame Aira Villegas of the Philippines 5-0 to take the firsttitle for Vietnam.
Tam,a former Asian champion, showed excellent technical skills and foundher rhythm in time to defeat the promising Filipino hope who won anSEA Games bronze three years ago.
Tam’steammate Vo Thi Kim Anh won in the women’s 54kg category. In the finalmatch, the 25-year-old beat world European U22 champion Sirine Charaabi fromItaly.
Following thefirst tactical round, the Italian opened the second with good shots, but shesometimes stepped into the ideal fighting distance of the Vietnamese boxer. TheItalian southpaw moved forward, but Ánh had a successful counter-attackingtactic and her quick right-handed shots guaranteed Vietnam’s second gold medal.
Earlier, TranThi Oanh Nhi grabbed a silver in the women’s 75kg after losing to HergieBacyadan of the Philippines.
Among the sevenbronzes of Vietnam, one was in the women’s class and six in the men’s.
Host Thailandtopped the overall podium with four golds, six silvers and seven bronzes.
India andKazakhstan came second and third, respectively.
The ThailandOpen is one of the world’s biggest boxing events and took place for130 elite boxers in Phuket from April 1 to 10.
There were sixweight classes for women and seven for men.
Vietnamese athleteswill continue training in Phuket in preparation for the 31st SEA Gamesand return home by the end of this month./.
