Nghe An Sports 2017: Vibrant movement, fluctuating high achievements

(Baonghean) - In 2017, throughout Nghe An, from the highlands of Ky Son to the northern tip of Hoang Mai, grassroots sports tournaments were held in a bustling manner. In domestic and international tournaments, Nghe An athletes also won many medals.

Volleyball competition at the Lotus Village Festival. Photo: PV

Attractive grassroots sports

In 2017, all 480/480 communes, wards and 21/21 districts, cities and towns in the province successfully organized the grassroots sports congresses at all levels associated with the movement "All people unite to build grassroots cultural life".

At the congresses, localities have focused on sports that are loved by people and practiced regularly to organize competitions, such as: volleyball, football, badminton, table tennis and traditional sports such as wrestling, crossbow shooting, tug of war, boat racing... so they have attracted a large number of people to participate.

Sports festivals from commune to district level are invested in and organized on a large scale and grandly, creating an impression and becoming a festival for the whole people for the cause of physical education and sports development.

At the same time, many provincial-level sports tournaments were organized such as: Olympic Running Day for the health of all people; Sports competition of ethnic minorities in mountainous areas of Nghe An province; Youth - Children's Football Tournament of Nghe An Newspaper Cup; Badminton Tournament of Nghe An Province's Open Clubs; Volleyball Tournament of Sen Village Festival; Athletics and swimming tournaments for young people... Among them, there are tournaments that are 100% socialized such as: Youth - Children's Football Tournament of Nghe An Newspaper Cup, Nghe An Tennis Tournament; Youth Football Tournament of Vinh City...

Tug of war competition at Hoang Muoi Temple Festival. Photo: PV

Through grassroots sports festivals and provincial tournaments, excellent athletes were selected to prepare for provincial teams to compete at the 8th National Sports Festival in 2018.

In addition, in 2017, Nghe An hosted and participated in organizing many national sports tournaments such as: Beach Sepak Takraw; Northern Region Student Taekwondo Tournament; National Traditional Martial Arts Championship; National U17 Football Qualifiers; National U13 Football Finals; 3 Stages of VTV International Cycling Tournament Ton Hoa Sen Cup; National Tennis Tournament for Outstanding Young Tennis Players...

Pole pushing event at the Quy Hop District Sports Festival. Photo: Phan Giang

The successful organization of national tournaments in Nghe An province has contributed to promoting the image of the country and people of Nghe An in general and the position of Nghe An sports in particular, along with creating a playground and a place for athletes to exchange and learn.

Fluctuating high performance

Along with the boom of mass sports movement, Nghe An high-performance sports have also made strong progress, but the achievements are still unstable and low compared to the available potential. In 2017, Nghe An athletes participated in 63 competitions organized by the General Department of Sports and Physical Training, Vietnam and Asian Sports Federations, winning 303 medals of all kinds (59 gold medals, 78 silver medals, 166 bronze medals).

However, unfortunately, at the 29th SEA Games (considered the most important international playground for Vietnamese sports in 2017), Nghe An did not contribute many athletes to participate and the results were not as expected (only won 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal in sepak takraw).

And the most regrettable thing is the failure of U22 Vietnam at SEA Games 29. With a squad that has many key players from Nghe An, under the leadership of head coach Nguyen Huu Thang, the U22 players had an impressive start with resounding victories but were eventually eliminated from the group stage.

Song Lam Nghe An Club won the 2017 National Cup. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In the context of localities nationwide increasingly investing heavily in football, Nghe An has slowed down. After the 2016 season, they were “empty-handed” in all tournaments from the U11 youth team level to the first team participating in the V.League.

Entering the 2017 season, SLNA teams had a slow start, from the first team in V.League to the youth teams had disappointing matches. It seemed like another failed season, but fortunately, the spectacular sprint at the end of the season helped SLNA reap encouraging achievements: U11 won the Gold Medal; U13, U15 and U21 won the Bronze Medal...

The most impressive thing is that Team 1 convincingly won the 2017 National Cup right at the "fire pan of Thanh Vinh" and became the team with the largest collection of National Cups (3 times winning the Cup in 2002, 2010, 2017), this is also the most outstanding achievement, closing an exciting year of Nghe An sports.

Duc Dung