ASIAD 2023: Vietnamese sports need a breakthrough in achievements
The Vietnam Sports Delegation (VSD) came to the 19th Asian Games with a target of 2 to 5 gold medals, which fluctuated widely. This is enough to show that the hope of winning gold medals is there but not really clear and to complete it requires a breakthrough from each athlete.
Hope in Sepak Takraw, Karate, Shooting, Boxing, Chess
These are the 5 sports that experts have ranked as having the best chance of winning a gold medal for the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the 19th Asian Games. The assessment was made after analyzing 3 factors: people, specific achievements and competition from opponents. In which, the athletes' abilities and performance in tournaments before the 19th Asian Games light up hope, even though 4 out of 5 sports are competitive sports, with potential risks or bad luck in the drawing and scheduling process.
The women's sepak takraw team is very confident after winning the world championship for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023 in the women's 4-person team event with Nguyen Thi My, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen, Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, Nguyen Thi Yen. This is an important professional support, strengthening confidence before competing at the Asiad. In addition, in the competition registration, there is no representative of Thailand participating in the women's 4-person team event and the competition is mainly between the 3 teams of Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia.
Similarly in karate, the achievement of winning the gold medal in the women's team kumite event (Hoang Thi My Tam, Nguyen Thi Ngoan, Dinh Thi Huong, Vang Thi Ngoc My) at the Asian Championship that ended at the end of July in Malaysia also opened up opportunities for Vietnam. The competitive ability of Vietnamese martial artists has been affirmed against the strongest opponents in the continent and with careful preparation in all aspects, many hopes have been raised. In addition, this is also the tournament where martial artist Hoang Thi My Tam, born in 2003, is expected to shine.
Trinh Thu Vinh (shooting), Nguyen Thi Tam (boxing) are also two great hopes through tickets to the 2024 Olympics (women's 10m air pistol event) and the 2023 world runner-up position (women's 52kg category). "The key is still the ability to promote achievements in competition because the competition is very big and in reality, Vietnamese athletes are not completely superior to their opponents. For shooting, even just one mistake can cause athletes to be eliminated, but these are all athletes with good achievements and hopefully they will shine at the Asiad. As for Chinese chess, the mixed team event is included for the first time, Vietnamese players have hope to compete with equal level and a 50-50 chance", said Head of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation Dang Ha Viet.
Waiting for the unexpected
Compared to the most recent ASIAD, the Vietnamese Sports Delegation actually does not have athletes in key sports or events that can win gold medals with high forecasting indexes such as Bui Thi Thu Thao (women's long jump), rowing lightweight 4-sculls or pencak silat combat events before the competition in 2018. This is also part of the reason why the target of winning gold medals at the 19th Asiad has a large fluctuation range such as from 2 to 5 gold medals. The 5 sports mentioned above will shoulder the responsibility and the remaining sports set goals to strive for, if achieving high results, it can bring surprises.
Based on specific achievements, the women's 4x400m relay in athletics is ranked at the top in terms of the ability to cause surprises. At the 2023 Asian Championship held in Thailand in July, Nguyen Thi Ngoc, Hoang Thi Minh Hanh, Nguyen Thi Huyen and Nguyen Thi Hang brought home the gold medal with a time of 3 minutes 32 seconds 36. The women's 4x400m relay is also a key event that has been carefully invested in and has been given the opportunity to go to China early (from August 19) to train and get acquainted with the objective conditions.
"Vietnam has just won the Asian gold medal in the women's 4x400m event and I personally also have high hopes that the athletes will be successful at the Asian Games. However, the competition is predicted to be very fierce as India is very strong in this event, not to mention other opponents. Especially with speed, strength and measurable achievements, it is difficult to be surprised because the achievement development process is relatively clearly quantified," according to the analysis of Head of Delegation Dang Ha Viet.
"Athletes need to overcome themselves and create breakthroughs in competition to achieve good results and complete assigned tasks," Mr. Dang Ha Viet emphasized.
