Vote for Outstanding Athlete: 'Without a teacher, you can't make it'

(Baonghean.vn) - Everyone remembers the above proverb but BTCThe election for outstanding athletes and coaches; outstanding athletes and coaches for people with disabilities nationwide in 2017 was not included. That is why coach Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong - the teacher of the "golden girl" of SEA Games 2017 Le Tu Chinh - was not included in the list of national outstanding coaches.

On the morning of December 28, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the election of outstanding athletes and coaches; outstanding athletes and coaches of disabled sports nationwide in 2017 took place. This is an annual activity jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Vietnam Olympic Committee, the General Department of Sports and Physical Training; Vietnam Sports Newspaper and the Central Propaganda Department of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union.

35 athletes and 14 coaches

From the introductions of Federations, Associations and sports, the Organizing Committee of the election received 28 nominations of outstanding athletes and 11 national coaches, along with 7 nominations of outstanding disabled athletes and 3 national excellent disabled coaches.

The organizing committee of the voting in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Internet

Vietnamese sports have just gone through a year with many new achievements being recorded. Notably, the Vietnamese sports delegation just finished the 29th SEA Games with 59 gold medals, 47 silver medals, 55 bronze medals, ranking 3rd on the medal tally of the Games.

This was a successful sports festival for Vietnamese sports, with Olympic events accounting for 90% of the gold medals. The Olympic events of the Vietnamese sports delegation won big at this SEA Games. Athletics was the event that brought the most gold medals to the Vietnamese sports delegation with 17 gold medals, followed by swimming (10 gold medals), gymnastics (5 gold medals) and Karatedo (5 gold medals)…

Standing out among the typical athletes are "little mermaids" Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, Nguyen Huy Hoang and Nguyen Huu Kim Son in swimming; Le Tu Chinh, Nguyen Thi Huyen, Vu Thi Ly, Nguyen Thi Oanh in athletics; disabled athletes Le Van Cong, Nguyen Binh An, Dang Thi Linh Phuong, Chau Hoang Tuyet Loan (all weightlifting), Vi Thi Hang (swimming) and Le Van Manh (athletics)….

Men's football has Dinh Thanh Trung (Quang Nam Club); Nguyen Anh Duc (Becamex Binh Duong Club); Nguyen Quang Hai (Hanoi Club), coaches Hoang Van Phuc (Quang Nam Club); Hoang Anh Tuan (Vietnam Football Talent Development Investment Fund), women's football has coach Mai Duc Chung (Vietnam Football Federation)...

For disabled athletes, the highlight iscWeightlifting: Le Van Cong (Ho Chi Minh City); Nguyen Binh An (Tra Vinh). Swimming: Vo Thanh Tung (Ho Chi Minh City); Trinh Thi Bich Nhu (Ho Chi Minh City); Vo Huynh Anh Khoa (Ho Chi Minh City). Athletics: Nguyen Thi Hai (Ho Chi Minh City); Nguyen Hoang Minh (Ho Chi Minh City)...

Unfortunate mistake

Sports journalists were quite surprised when the list provided by the Organizing Committee lacked many faces that created success for the country's sports, especially athletics.

Anh Vien, No. 1 National Outstanding Athlete 2017. Photo: Internet

In 2017, athletics contributed 17/59 gold medals to the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the 2017 SEA Games. Athlete Le Tu Chinh, who shone, created a "fever" at the 2017 SEA Games (Malaysia) with 3 gold medals in 100m, 200m, 4x100m. But coach Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong - Le Tu Chinh's teacher - was not on the nomination list.

Similarly, coach Vu Ngoc Loi, coach of athlete Nguyen Thi Huyen (winning 3 gold medals in 400m, 400m hurdles, 4x400m) is also not on the list. Searching the list, people also do not see coach Nguyen Manh Hieu - coach of athlete Bui Thi Thu Thao (gold medal at Asian Championship, gold medal at SEA Games 2017).

Mr. Hoang Manh Cuong - Deputy Director of Department of High Performance Sports I, Vice President and General Secretary of Vietnam Athletics Federation, when he heard the story, also expressed surprise and said: "I just saw this list today and I don't understand why it's so strange. In my opinion, Coach Thanh Huong, Ngoc Loi, Nguyen Manh Hieu all deserve to be on the list of outstanding coaches."

Explaining this, the Organizing Committee said that it was because "the department did not see the nomination (?!) so it was missed" and allowed reporters participating in the voting to manually fill in the ballot.

AT