The journey of hard work to become talented of the 'Golden Girl' of Nghe An

Vo Thi Hang and the Vietnamese delegation participated in the Vovinam World Championship. Photo: NVCC

Practice makes perfect

Vo Thi Hang was born in Nghi Loc district, Hang's parents and siblings are all passionate about sports. During the summer, the girl born in 1996 often followed her siblings to martial arts classes, so she loved and was passionate about this sport since then. In 2011, when Hang was in 9th grade, coach Tran Trong Cuong of Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center came to recruit athletes. Vo Thi Hang quickly caught the eye of teacher Cuong, because at that time, the female student of Nghi Tien Secondary School had an ideal appearance, an agile figure and a very good record in physical education. Teacher Cuong commented that Hang would be a talented athlete in the future if she was trained and trained properly.

During the first days of joining the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center, the girl from the coastal town of Nghi Loc wanted to give up many times. Hang recalled: “The first days were very sad, I had to stay alone in a room at the center, I was scared to sleep at night and missed home very much. I called my mother all night and cried, but then she encouraged me so I calmed down. As time passed, everything became familiar to me, so I was able to adapt and love this place more, that also gave me more enthusiasm in training.”

Being a smart and agile girl, it was not difficult for Hang to absorb the lessons given by the coach. Basic techniques in martial artsPencak silatHang performed it smoothly. In addition, she also has kicks with long strides and very quick reflexes.

After only 3 months of training, Hang was selected to participate in a youth tournament. In that tournament, due to lack of experience, Hang came away empty-handed. “That was the first tournament in my career. I lost but I didn’t feel too sad or disappointed, because the coach only asked me to participate for the purpose of gaining experience and learning. Therefore, through that tournament, I accumulated many lessons for myself to be able to develop in the future,” Hang confided and said that the first failure gave her experience and determination to practice hard.

Vo Thi Hang won the Silver Medal at the World Vovinam event. Photo: NVCC

Proud Golden Girl

The first sweet fruit that this boxer achieved was in 2013, when he won the Gold Medal of the National Youth Championship. “This is the tournament where I showed my strengths and my signature moves. Through this tournament, I saw that in addition to good technical and tactical preparation, an athlete who wants to win must have a strong mentality, a strong will and not give up in the face of difficulties, and this is also the experience for me to be able to go further in the future.”

Also after this first tournament, Hang was called to the national Pencak Silat team - a new step in the life of a professional athlete. In the international arena, the athlete from Nghe An quickly affirmed her name with the Southeast Asian Gold Medal and a series of great achievements after that. Hang is also considered the "Golden Girl" in the martial arts world with more than 10 Gold Medals in domestic and international tournaments from 2013 to 2017.

The final match of the Vovinam World Championship. Photo: NVCC

After being successful in Pencak Silat, Hang was asked by her coach to switch to another sport.Vovinam. The coach hopes that with the experience and qualities that the Nghi Loc athlete has, he will promote this new sport. Accepting the coach's request, Hang tried hard to practice the new sport from the beginning. Because of her basic skills and innate talent, Hang quickly became an excellent Vovinam martial artist. In 3 consecutive years, from 2017 to 2019, Hang won 3 national championships. In 2019, Vo Thi Hang represented the Vietnamese Vovinam sports delegation to participate in the World Championship. At this tournament, she competed very impressively when overcoming a series of strong opponents to advance to the final match.

In the final match, Hang was always ahead of her opponent in terms of points, however, due to bad luck, her opponent equalized in the last minutes of the match. That draw forced Hang and her opponent to draw lots to find the champion. The draw of luck made Hang sadly watch her opponent step up to the podium of glory...

These days, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, tournaments cannot take place, but martial artist Vo Thi Hang is still diligently practicing to bring glory to the province and the country. In addition, she also guides and instructs her juniors, ready to inspire young people to follow her path to success.

Sharing with Nghe An Newspaper, Hang confided that the secret to her success is burning with passion, making efforts in training and always nurturing the desire to win. "Not only martial arts but all other sports, if you want to succeed, if you want to reach glory, you must have hard work, desire and burning determination," the golden girl Vo Thi Hang advised.