The "versatile" martial artist

(Baonghean) - Martial artist Nguyen Van Duc was born on August 6, 1990 in Xuan Hong commune, Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh). His family was poor, so Duc's childhood was full of hardship. As the eldest brother in a family of 6 siblings, Duc had to do all kinds of jobs since childhood to help his parents raise his younger siblings. In addition to farming, Duc also made a living from the river. Working with the river to catch fish and shrimp helped his family improve their meals, but thanks to that, Duc had a good physique.

At just over 10 years old, Duc's body already showed the figure of a strong young man. In grade 10, Duc followed his uncle to Vinh City to play and met his relative, Mr. Bui Duy Vinh, a traditional martial arts and boxing coach at the Nghe An Province Sports Training Center. Seeing Duc, teacher Vinh recognized his potential and advised Duc to pursue traditional martial arts and boxing. From teacher Vinh's way of "instilling the fire", Duc began to be passionate and wanted to pursue traditional martial arts. However, to be accepted by his family and relatives, Duc had to spend a lot of time convincing. At that time, people in his hometown had a different concept, that sports had to be soccer and volleyball, but "fighting" should be avoided because it was too violent.

After doing ideological work and convincing his family, on July 7, 2006, Nguyen Van Duc started his probation at the Provincial Sports Training Center and became an official member of the provincial traditional martial arts and boxing team. Only 8 months after joining the team, Nguyen Van Duc won his first medal. It was a silver medal at the national youth tournament held in Quang Ngai.

Boxer Nguyen Van Duc (right) and the joy of victory.

Exactly 1 year after joining Nghe An Sports Center, Nguyen Van Duc won his first gold medal. That was at the National Youth Tournament held in Nghe An and Duc won the boxing championship. From here, the name Van Duc became known to many people and also opened a period of success for the boxer who was only 17 years old at that time.

With a good physique, Nguyen Van Duc is a very versatile athlete. In addition to traditional martial arts and boxing, when Kick-boxing was first introduced, Van Duc was also the one who quickly approached and brought glory to Vietnam.

According to Van Duc, from July 2007 to early 2009, he participated in many tournaments in and out of the province and won medals in every tournament. In 2009, he was called to the national team to attend the Asian Games, held in Thailand. At this tournament, Nguyen Van Duc won a bronze medal in Kick-boxing. This was also the first international medal of Vietnamese Kick-boxing.

Being able to play multi-tasks, Van Duc was sent to participate in any competition. From 2009 to 2012, Duc participated in many different large and small tournaments and in almost all of them, Duc achieved high results. Martial artist Nguyen Van Duc became famous in the traditional martial arts, boxing and kick boxing community in Vietnam. In 2013, the big mark that Van Duc created was winning the 68kg weight class at the National Excellent Athletes Championship, held in Binh Dinh.

Duc's name is increasingly affirmed and mentioned as the leading candidate for the championship in all domestic tournaments. In 2014 alone, in the success of Nghe An delegation at the National Sports Festival held in Nam Dinh, Nguyen Van Duc also "contributed" with 1 bronze medal. In less than 10 years of participating and competing in domestic and international tournaments, Van Duc said he has 15 gold medals. As for the silver and bronze medals, he cannot remember all of them. Van Duc is also one of the most successful athletes of traditional martial arts, boxing, and kick-boxing in Nghe An.

Vinh Liem