The Beginning of Passion

(Baonghean) - Winning a Silver Medal at the World Sepak Takraw Championship, a Gold Medal at the National Championship... but for Sepak Takraw player Le Cong Tai, that is just the beginning. For Tai, the age of 22 is the peak of a professional athlete's career.

Le Cong Tai has just received an award from the Tam Tai Foundation, and has won many awards many times.

Le Cong Tai with the new awards won in 2013.

Tai has known shuttlecock since his primary school days but was only discovered by coach Ton That Hoa when he participated in the Phu Dong Sports Festival at Hung Dung Secondary School. The day Tai and 6 other friends were called up to the team, Tai was the youngest boy, both in age (grade 6), weight and appearance. But on the contrary, Tai had flexible, agile legs, and was quick to grasp, almost "born for shuttlecock", so while his friends struggled to grasp the lesson plan of the physical training exercises, Tai caught on very quickly. After 6 months in the team, he was selected to participate in the national youth tournament. Recalling the days when he first joined the tournament, Tai said: when I went, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to enter the match. When I got to Ha Tay, I was still confused.

In the first tournament, Tai lost. That was not beyond the coaching staff's prediction because at that time, Nghe An shuttlecock team had just started to form, did not have much experience, nor did they have many players to compete with. Le Cong Tai himself was still too young to understand what winning or losing meant to a professional athlete. After the tournament, many friends who joined him at the same time asked to withdraw from the team because they could not stand the pressure, some were eliminated because they did not meet the requirements. The team only had Tai, Thanh (who later won the World Championship gold medal) and a few other members.

Also after deciding to stick with the team for a long time, Le Cong Tai began to identify this as his "career" and spent more time playing shuttlecock. Regularly, every day, in addition to his cultural studies at school, he cycled to the provincial Sports Training Center to practice with the coach. Joining the athletic career early, Le Cong Tai did not have much time to spend with friends, did not have much time to read stories, watch movies like his peers. Tai confided: "I am more timid than my friends, partly because of that."

Despite his diligence, Le Cong Tai continued to fail in the two tournaments two years later. After three years of being empty-handed in the national youth tournament, he was often negative and blamed himself, feeling guilty about the expectations of his teachers and parents. Cong Tai also thought about quitting his job, but then thanks to the encouragement of coach Ton That Hoa and his parents, he had more determination to practice. The first medal that Le Cong Tai won was the Silver Medal at the 2009 national youth tournament held in Nghe An. In terms of time, from the time Le Cong Tai joined the team until he achieved this achievement, it took him exactly 5 years with more than a thousand days of hard training. This Silver Medal also ended Tai's "empty-handed" period and continuously after that, Tai won almost every tournament he participated in. Notably, in two consecutive years at the national tournament (2012 and 2013), Tai won the Gold Medal and became one of the best Vietnamese athletes selected to participate in the world shuttlecock tournament.

Le Cong Tai said that before participating in the world tournament held in September in Dong Thap, the entire team had nearly 3 months to gather at the National Sports Training Center to practice. It was called practice but in fact it was to compete and compete, everyone wanted to win to compete for a place in the official competition of the tournament. Tai's opponents at that time were two athletes from Bac Giang and Dong Thap, localities with many traditions in shuttlecock kicking and it took a lot of effort for Le Cong Tai to win a spot in the men's singles, a position that many athletes dream of. Not letting down the trust of the coaching staff and teachers at the Center, entering the tournament when meeting two opponents from Taiwan and Germany, it only took 10-15 minutes for Le Cong Tai to win. Only in the final match against a Chinese player, the homeland of shuttlecock kicking, did Le Cong Tai accept defeat with a close score of 23-21 and 21-19.

After this failure, Tai learned his lesson, it was not because he was "overwhelmed" by a great player, not because he was too worried, but because his technique and physical strength were still too weak. That's why, later on, Le Cong Tai spent more time on these two physical training exercises. Winning a medal at the world tournament, everyone also thought that Le Cong Tai would register to go to university to prepare for a "long-term" career as a player. But confiding in me, Tai said: "I joined the shuttlecock team since I was 12 years old, the province has invested billions in me for the past 10 years, now is the peak competition period, if I only focus on myself, I will be a waste of everyone's efforts. I still want to contribute for a few more years. First is the National Sports Festival, then I hope to win a Gold Medal at the World Championship in two years.

Article and photos:My Ha