Runner from Nghe An and teammates set record at Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championship

The 2023 Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships will take place from December 7-9, the final regional tournament of the year for young athletes in the region (under 18 years old). The Vietnamese athletics team will participate with 32 athletes, including runner Le Thi Tuyet Mai from the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center.

At this tournament, Tuyet Mai excellently won 4 Gold medals, including 1 individual Gold medal in the 400m race and 3 Gold medals in relay events: 4x1400m women, 4x400m women and 4x400m mixed.

Notably, in the women's 4x400m relay event, Le Thi Tuyet Mai and her teammates Ngo Thi My Duyen, Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh and Vu Thi Tra My set a tournament record with a total time of 3'48"09 to win the Gold medal, breaking the record set by the Thai youth athletics team 9 years ago (in 2014) of 3'49"79.

Le Thi Tuyet Mai was born in 2006, the youngest child in a Tho ethnic farming family in Nghia Mai commune (Nghia Dan). This female athlete had a difficult childhood when her father died early of cancer, leaving her mother to raise her two siblings alone.

In September 2020, Le Thi Tuyet Mai was selected to join the athletics team of Nghe An Provincial Training and Competition Center. Before winning 3 gold medals at the 2023 Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships, this runner had won a number of outstanding achievements such as: Gold medal in 4x400m mixed relay at the 2022 National Youth Athletics Championships; Gold medals in 400m and 400m hurdles at the 2023 National Youth Athletics Championships; Gold medals in 400m and 400m hurdles at the 2023 National Youth Athletics Championships.

At the end of October, in her first time participating in the National Athletics Championship - the highest level domestic tournament in athletics, Le Thi Tuyet Mai won 1 Silver medal in the 4 x 200m relay, 1 Bronze medal in the 4x400 relay and 1 Bronze medal in the women's 4x400m hurdles.