Runner from Nghe An and his teammates set a record at the Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships

The 2023 Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships, taking place from December 7 to 9, is the final regional tournament of the year for young athletes in the region (under 18 years old). The Vietnamese athletics team participated with 32 athletes, including runner Le Thi Tuyet Mai of 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, 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, winning 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 work hard to raise her two children.

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: 4x400m mixed relay gold medal at the 2022 National Youth Athletics Championships; 400m and 400m hurdles gold medals at the 2023 National Youth Athletics Championships; 400m and 400m hurdles gold medals 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 4 x 400m relay and 1 Bronze medal in the women's 4 x 400m hurdles.