Why did SEA Games Queen Vu Thi Huong fail?

After the failure in the 100m, everyone expected (or anxiously waited) that Vu Thi Huong would show her performance worthy of the title "Queen of Southeast Asian Athletics." However, Vu Thi Huong once again failed.

Still starting slowly like the previous times, Vu Thi Huong gave way to her opponents in the first few meters, before accelerating in the next section. However, in the last 30 meters, Huong showed signs of exhaustion and let her teammate Le Ngoc Phuong and her all-too-familiar opponent, TaWongcharoen (Thailand) pass.

Unlike the first day of competition, Vu Thi Huong tried very hard to reach the finish line yesterday. She walked a bit to relax before sitting down on the track, then stood up again, bent over and breathed heavily for a long time. The electronic board immediately showed the athletes' results. Vu Thi Huong was only ranked 3rd with a time of 24'06.

The above achievement was even worse than teammate Le Ngoc Phuong (24'01, silver medal) and far behind Tawongcharoen. After many defeats against Vu Thi Huong, TaWongcharoen rose up, winning the gold medal with a time of 23'65.

Still smiling, Vu Thi Huong appeared very calm when accepting the above result. Surrounded by Vietnamese journalists, Vu Thi Huong said: "I tried my best, just like in the 100m distance. It's not that I've lost my form, it's simply that my current ability is only like that. After the injury, I only had two months to practice so I didn't achieve the necessary endurance."

True to her usual strong and confident personality, according to Vu Thi Huong, she is still capable of aiming for a ticket to the 2012 London Olympics. The former SEA Games champion said: "As soon as I return to Vietnam, I will focus on the task of winning a ticket to the London Olympics. I need six months to prepare and have been training for two months now. I think I can do it."

Up to now, no one in the athletics team has given a convincing answer for the failure of the Thai Nguyen girl in both the 100m and 200m races, which Huong had dominated in Southeast Asia for three consecutive years.

The reason why Vu Thi Huong's performance suddenly declined like this, in the context that both her direct coach, Nguyen Dinh Minh, and she herself confirmed that her injury had fully recovered, is still a question mark.

After the 26th SEA Games, the athletics team will certainly have an assessment of the competition situation in Indonesia and at that time the lessons from Vu Thi Huong's failure will be carefully analyzed so that they can set new goals for the girl who once made regional opponents respect her in the speed track of the queen sport.

According to VNA/Vietnam+