'Rescue ticket' to win long jump gold medal for Vietnam

In his first time participating in the SEA Games, Bui Van Dong brought home a gold medal for the Vietnamese team in the long jump event.

"I felt happy, so happy," Dong shared. "I had calculated that I could win a gold medal, but at that time, I was so happy that I didn't know what to think about."

Bui Van Dong opens up a bright future for the men's long jump. Photo: Pham Duong.

Dong is one of the new discoveries of Vietnamese athletics and has qualified for the SEA Games with a special ticket. Bui Van Dong was added due to his excellent gold medal win at the 2017 Ho Chi Minh City Open Athletics Tournament, with a score of 7.89 meters. This is a record achievement far surpassing the 7.75 meters of athlete Supanara Ayudhaya, the owner of the 28th SEA Games gold medal.

On the evening of August 24, Dong's jump was worse than his previous performance at the tournament, reaching only 7.83 meters. However, with that, he was still 0.05 meters ahead of the second-place finisher, Swandi Wijaya.

The Indonesian competitor put pressure on the fourth jump when he reached 7.78 meters, while before that, Dong only achieved the highest result of 7.64 meters in the first jump. However, in the fifth and penultimate jump, Dong reached 7.83 meters.

Bui Van Dong's victory concluded a wonderful day of athletics competition with 5 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.

According to VNE