Besides the efforts of the athletes, the victory of the Vietnamese relay team in the women's 4x400m event at the Asian championship this week also left a strong mark on the coaching staff's tactics.
The Vietnamese women's 4x400m team celebrates their victory in the final of this event at the Asian Athletics Championships on July 16. Photo: AAC
The starting order of the 4x400m race on July 16 was Nguyen Thi Ngoc, Hoang Thi Minh Hanh, Nguyen Thi Huyen and Nguyen Thi Hang. The race that followed had two unusual details. First, Ngoc ran first and was far behind the Sri Lankan, Indian and Japanese athletes. Second, the main force, Nguyen Thi Huyen, instead of running last like many previous races, this time ran third.
Normally, teams will submit their roster and the athletes' running order 90 minutes before the competition. Coaches have to calculate their team's tactics, and predict how other teams will use tactics. "The teams are too familiar with Huyen running last, so this time we decided to change it," coach Vu Ngoc Loi of the 4x400m team told VnExpress . Mr. Loi was the one who discovered and guided Huyen from when she was a young athlete to her current star status.
The 4x400m relay event stipulates that if there are less than 5 competing teams, the starting athlete only needs to run a 120m curve, from stand A to stand B in the original lane order, and then can switch to lane 1 - the innermost lane. If there are 5 or more teams competing, like the 4x400m final at the 2023 Asian Championship on July 16, all athletes must run 400m + 120m before they can "change lanes".
Coach Ngoc Loi chose Nguyen Thi Ngoc to run in the first leg because a good start is this athlete's strong point. And she was assessed to have completed the task well, although the reality on the track showed that Ngoc was sometimes left far behind by her opponents. Former Vietnamese 400m record holder, Mr. Trinh Duc Thanh, currently Head of the HCM City Athletics Department, analyzed: "It is normal for the audience to watch and see Ngoc being left far behind at times in a relay race, because the opponent may have arranged for the main runner to compete in the first leg. But relay is a game of teammates, of tactical calculations, so the situation will change very quickly."
In fact, the race became more intense in the second run, when Hoang Thi Minh Hanh passed the 120 meter mark and gradually moved into lane 1 to narrow the gap and put pressure on her opponents. The image of Minh Hanh moving from the outer lane to the inner lane and then moving out of this lane to hand the baton to Nguyen Thi Huyen to run the third run began to increase the drama of the race.
Vietnam won the women's 4x400m gold medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships at Suphachalasai Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand on July 16.
At the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in May, Nguyen Thi Huyen missed out on the gold medal in the 400m event partly because she had to run in lane 7 - the innermost lane. Coach Vu Ngoc Loi further explained: "Huyen's strength lies in her ability to accelerate past her opponents at the end, which means she has the greatest advantage if she runs a moderate distance behind her opponents and has good visibility. If she runs in the outer lanes like lane 7, Huyen will not be able to develop this strength in the first few sections."
In terms of recent achievements, Nguyen Thi Hang and Nguyen Thi Huyen's stats are almost the same, but coach Vu Ngoc Loi believes that letting Nguyen Thi Huyen run the third leg will have its own advantages. He also believes that Minh Hanh will choose the best position for Huyen to start. On the other hand, in the second and third runs, the athlete's running distance will increase a bit, not just 400m according to the exact field measurement. The best runners can help the team gain an advantage even in these distances longer than 400m. And most importantly, Huyen will maximize her ability to accelerate and put pressure on the opponents running in front. In the event that the opponents calculate that the greatest competitive pressure will come in the fourth run, which Huyen usually takes on, the fact that this athlete runs the third leg will have an additional element of surprise.
In fact, coach Vu Ngoc Loi's calculations proved to be effective. Receiving the baton from her teammates and starting after her two opponents, Huyen gradually overtook and then left the Japanese runner in the same turn about 10 meters behind. This created a big advantage for Nguyen Thi Hang, in the final run, to accelerate strongly. Although Sri Lankan athlete Dissanayaka also accelerated strongly near the end, with the steady mentality of an athlete in her prime, Hang maintained the advantage created by her teammates to reach the finish line when the clock struck 3 minutes 32 seconds 36. Sri Lanka finished second with 3 minutes 33 seconds 27, while India ranked third with 3 minutes 33 seconds 73.
Nguyen Thi Huyen created an advantage of about 10 meters for Nguyen Thi Hang to accelerate....
.... and then finished first on the Suphachalasai track, Bangkok, Thailand on July 16. Photo: AAC
"A gap of 10 meters or more with opponents in the 400m distance is very difficult to fill. A strong mentality and a very reasonable tactical arrangement helped the 4x400m running team gain an advantage, then maintain it to achieve the best results," said coach Le Thanh Hung, a national champion in the 800m and 1,500m distances.
Coach Vu Ngoc Loi admitted that the recent gold medal in the Asian women's 4x400m was one of the most emotional victories of his career. However, he also believes that this 4x400m team can further improve their achievements, when combining the youth and maturity of the athletes.
Thai Ca
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