Nghe An High Performance Sports: Need to accelerate comprehensively

Compared to the 4th National Sports Congress in 2002, the number of medals of all kinds that Nghe An Sports Delegation achieved (7 gold medals, 5 silver medals, 12 bronze medals) with the most recent 8th National Sports Congress in 2018 (8 gold medals, 9 silver medals, 21 bronze medals), the position in the Nghe An sports rankings dropped from 12th/64 provinces, cities, and sectors to 19th/65. In the context of the province's increasingly developing economy. So what is the reason that makes Nghe An sports fall 7 places behind?

Current achievements and difficulties of high performance sport

Looking back 20 years ago, at the 4th National Sports Festival held in Hanoi from November 14 to 22, 2002, the Nghe An Provincial Sports Delegation participated with 24 medals, including 7 Gold Medals, 5 Silver Medals, 12 Bronze Medals, ranking 12th out of 64 participating delegations. If excluding the two branches of the Army and the Police, Nghe An was in the top 10 strongest provinces and cities. 16 years later, at the 8th National Sports Festival also held in Hanoi from November 25 to December 10, 2018; the Nghe An Sports Delegation dropped 7 places, ranking 19th out of 65 (17th out of 63 provinces and cities) with 8 Gold Medals, 9 Silver Medals, 21 Bronze Medals. It should be emphasized that the first ranking basis is the number of gold medals.

There will be many big changes for SLNA Club in the new season. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

Resolution of the 19th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025, sets the goal for Nghe An sports to be in the top 15 provinces and cities. So to create that miraculous leap: From 19th to 15th,Nghe An high performance sportsThere needs to be a comprehensive acceleration from investment in finance, facilities, training systems, policies, incentives... to hope that by 2025 Nghe An sports will be in the top 15 provinces, cities and sectors as set out in the Resolution of the 19th Party Congress.

To achieve the goal of being in the top 15 provinces and cities, the Sports sector needs to have strong, specific, and practical solutions based on the current situation of facilities, athlete training systems, policies, and incentive mechanisms for talented athletes. Stabilize the state budget for high-performance sports. In addition, the competent authorities need to innovate their thinking, improve their management and operation capacity, and improve the quality of the coaching staff...

SLNA is at the bottom of the table. Photo: Duc Anh

As someone who has worked in the Nghe An Sports sector for 32 years in different positions, with deep affection and love for sports, I would like to raise some issues related to high-performance sports, hoping that Nghe An sports will recover and go further in the cause of building an increasingly strong homeland, worthy of being the Center of the North Central region.

The first issue is that we must clearly define the viewpoint that Nghe An's high-performance sports are the driving force to promote the development of the province's sports and physical training career, thereby contributing to training high-quality human resources, enhancing the prestige and position of Nghe An in the country, region and internationally. Developing high-performance sports is the responsibility of Party committees at all levels, authorities, unions and social organizations, in which the State plays a leading role.

Coach Nguyen Thanh Hai - Nghe An team (far left) was an athlete who won the Asian Silver Medal. Photo courtesy of PV

From that perspective, we review the past 20 years since 2002 on the infrastructure, training system, investment in high-performance sports to gain experience, thereby finding appropriate solutions for Nghe An sports to recover and rise higher. To have the right solution, we need to clearly recognize the current situation of high-performance sports in our province:

Regarding the lack of and outdated facilities: Vinh Stadium was built from 1975 to 2002 and was upgraded with the addition of stand A. For the past 20 years, stands B, C, and D have not been built. The gymnasium was built nearly 30 years ago and is now degraded and outdated; the swimming pool was built in the 80s and is now outdated. It can be said that the three most important projects serving high-performance sports today, Nghe An is inferior to Ha Tinh, let alone other provinces.

The training of athletes is unsystematic, unscientific and discontinuous. This training system must be unified according to 3 lines as it was before 2004: Amateur talent - Young athletes - National team athletes.

The team of cadres and coaches working in high-performance sports do not yet meet the requirements for the task.

Mobilizing resources outside the state budget has not been promoted. Only football clubs have sponsors, while other sports such as volleyball... are relying on the State.

And specific solutions to break through

From the above issues, in my opinion, Nghe An high-performance sports need the right solution to quickly make a leap forward in the new stage.

Some of those solutions are:

There needs to be centralized direction from the province and support from the Central Government and sponsors to build a sports complex according to Decision No. 2159/QD.UBND-CN dated May 29, 2010 on the Planning of the North Central Sports Complex. Building this complex is essentially an investment in a stadium, a multi-functional gymnasium and a swimming pool to serve the province's high-performance sports training and coaching. In addition, it is necessary to determine investment in facilities for key sports to bring home many medals in competitions.

Athlete Ha Thi Le (blue shirt) excellently won the Gold Medal for Nghe An at the 2017 National Youth Boxing Championship. Photo courtesy of PV

Quickly innovate and build a unified, systematic and scientific high-performance sports training system in 3 levels: Amateur talent (district), Young athlete level (region), National team level (province). Previously, in 1993, Nghe An Department of Sports and Physical Education dissolved the football talent class in the Sports Training School and merged with Song Lam Football Team to form SLNA Football Team to unify the current high-quality young football athlete training system.

Research to identify key sports based on the province's strengths to prioritize construction and investment in order to create a qualitative change in training and coaching with the hope of bringing many medals to the province at all levels: National, regional and international.

Improve the quality of the management team for high-performance sports, train the team of coaches and referees for sports; apply science and technology in management and training to contribute to improving the quality of training and coaching athletes in practice and competition.

Athlete Nguyen Thi Quyen - Nghe An delegation (left) at Vietnam National Sepak Takraw Team. Photo: PV

The province needs to have specific mechanisms and policies for high-performance sports. Because this is both a goal and a driving force for the sports career. There needs to be a policy to attract sponsors, in investing in infrastructure, encouraging and motivating society to join hands to contribute to the development of sports. Currently, the football club has a sponsor; previously, the volleyball team also had the Postal Service invest in and manage the province's women's volleyball team. Ben Thuy Port, Traffic 4, and the Department of Finance sponsor the men's volleyball team of Nghe An province...

With the importance of high-performance sports as a measure to check the movement, as a driving force to encourage and promote the sports movement to develop more and more. Because mass sports and high-performance sports are two legs of one body, an organic relationship according to the law of cause and effect. Therefore, Party committees at all levels, authorities, unions and social organizations need to join hands to create new momentum in directing, managing, investing promptly, creating a leap forward for high-performance sports in Nghe An to achieve the set goals, contributing to the construction of Nghe An to become the political, economic and cultural center of the North Central region and one of the strong provinces of the country according to the wishes of beloved Uncle Ho.

Nguyen Hoang Thu