Referee Vu Duc Khang - The silent contributor behind the track

Mechanical engineer with a passion for cycling

At the 2022 Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival, Mr. Vu Duc Khang (born in 1956 in Vinh City) was one of the outstanding referees awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Nghe An Department of Culture and Sports for his outstanding contributions to the organization of the festival. Fairness, responsibility and competence are what athletes and the Organizing Committee of the festival recognized about him. However, few people know that this referee was originally a mechanical engineer and only started his refereeing career when he was over 50 years old.

Portrait of referee Vu Duc Khang (born in 1956, son of Vinh city, Nghe An). Photo: Character provided

Talking about that special journey, Mr. Vu Duc Khang said that he graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Electromechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and worked in many jobs before retiring in 2005. At that time, in Vinh city, where he was born, cycling began to attract many people's attention and spontaneous cycling movements were formed. From the initial purpose of cycling for exercise, many people gradually learned and conquered road cycling, mountain cycling and formed teams, groups, and clubs to satisfy this passion.

Mr. Vu Duc Khang (left cover) is one of the outstanding referees awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Nghe An Department of Culture and Sports for his outstanding contributions to the organization of the Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival in 2022. Photo: Thanh Quynh

In 2006, the Phuong Hoang - Trung Do tournament was held for cycling teams inside and outside the province to compete. At that time, Mr. Khang was one of the members of the Organizing Committee. After that tournament, he realized one thing, to organize a successful sports tournament, even if it is just a grassroots tournament, a "street" tournament, it still requires the expertise of a referee. That will be the person who holds the scales to create professionalism and transparency for each tournament. Since then, he has always sought and researched many documents to improve his knowledge in this field.

In 2013, a great joy came to him when the Vietnam Cycling - Motor Sports Federation opened a bicycle referee training course. The course had 35 people from many provinces and cities across the country and most of them were very young. Mr. Vu Duc Khang became the oldest student when he turned 57 years old. Many people often expressed surprise at his decision with questions like: Why study at that age, can the mindset of an old man nearly 60 ensure the criteria of mental and physical strength to complete the course? And then, he surprised everyone again when he was one of only 6 people to pass the course, and he was the highest graduate of that course.

Referee Vu Duc Khang and Russian athlete Igo Frolov won two awards: “Yellow Jersey” and “Red Mountain Jersey” at the 34th Ho Chi Minh City Television Cup National Cycling Race. Photo: Provided by the character

From this impressive achievement, in 2014, he was able to participate in the Dien Bien Phu racing tournament as arefereedetermine the race results. This is a national professional tournament organized by the People's Army Newspaper and is also a turning point marking his journey as a referee.

Since 2015, he has been the main referee of tournaments such as: VTV Cup Ton Hoa Sen International Cycling Tournament, HTV Racing Tournament - Ho Chi Minh City Television Cup jointly organized by the Sports and Physical Training Department, Ho Chi Minh City Television Station and the General Department of Sports and Physical Training of Vietnam. In particular, at the 31st SEA Games, he was trusted to take on the role of referee for cycling competitions. Behind those achievements is a whole process of training and hardships that few people know about...

Referee Vu Duc Khang (second from left, first row) holds a professional meeting of the referees' board before the cycling competition day of the 31st SEA Games. Photo: Character provided

Silent contributions

While referees in other sports can sit in one place to judge, referees in cycling races, especially road races, face many difficulties, because road races often last hundreds of kilometers.

For example, the VTV Ton Hoa Sen Cup Cycling Tournament 2020 has a 1,156 km long racing route with 9 stages spanning many provinces and cities of the country. Or the National Cycling Race for the Ho Chi Minh City Television Cup 2022 has 23 stages with a total route of 2,316.2 km. The referee must brave the rain and sun, endure all the harshness with the athletes on the race track for dozens of days to accurately measure the performance at each stage. From there, the results of the stages are added together to give the final result. These requirements require the referee to be physically fit and need to be clear-headed and clear-headed to score accurately.

Referring to those difficulties, Mr. Vu Duc Khang just smiled and confided: “For more than 10 years of traveling on the roads with the athletes, I have never felt tired. Each trip is a memorable memory and I feel truly satisfied because I am able to live with my passion and have people trust me in the races.”

Referee Vu Duc Khang (right cover) is taking pictures of the athletes' finishing line to analyze the most accurate results before announcing the results. Photo: Character provided

In the past, the awarding could be announced after 1 to 2 sessions and only used the naked eye to observe the athletes finishing, but now the referees need to have modern recording equipment to analyze accurately every second. Especially, at national tournaments, the results must be available immediately after 10 to 20 minutes to serve the awarding work immediately afterwards, so the referees almost have to work at full capacity. The equipment and machines can cost up to hundreds of millions, but each individual referee must equip himself to best serve the work he undertakes.

Accompanying athletes through the races, although difficult and stressful, is also the joy of the referees to bring the most accurate results. Photo: Character provided

“There are also times when referees are sued, especially in amateur tournaments because the athletes’ understanding of the rules is not as complete as in professional tournaments,” said Mr. Vu Duc Khang. For example, the amateur racing tournament held in Thanh Hoa last May brought together nearly 400 amateur athletes from 30 cycling clubs from many provinces and cities across the country. After the tournament was announced, an athlete sued him because he thought he had mistakenly added the results to his racing team. During the discussion, this athlete even showed his anger and disrespect for the referee.

In that situation, Mr. Vu Duc Khang calmly and skillfully reassured the athletes. At the same time, he published all the images, videos and score codes of the athletes in a transparent and accurate manner. All of that made the athletes and the organizing committee convinced. Those are the pressures that any referee must overcome. But once overcome, it will be a stepping stone for them to affirm their value on the chosen path.

To get accurate and timely race results, referee Vu Duc Khang and his colleagues must work with the highest possible concentration. Photo: Thanh Quynh

After completing the races to return to Nghe An, these days, Mr. Vu Duc Khang, along with the Party Committee and People's Committee of Cua Lo town, is focusing on the Cua Lo Open Cycling Race for the 2022 Sea Daisy Cup taking place on the morning of September 11 in Cua Lo town. With the passion of a son of Nghe An, he considers it both a duty and a joy to contribute to spreading the love for cycling and bringing friends from far away to the tourist land of his home province.