On September 4, weightlifter Le Van Cong will compete in the 49kg category of Weightlifting with the hope of completing a hat-trick of medals at the Paralympic arena.
On September 4, the biggest hope of the Vietnamese Paralympic Sports Delegation – weightlifter Le Van Cong, will compete in the 49kg category of Weightlifting with the hope of completing a hat-trick of medals at the Paralympic arena.
Before competing at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Le Van Cong held the world record in the 49kg category with a lift of 183.5kg set at the World Championships in Mexico in 2017. At the same time, this athlete born in 1984 also holds the Paralympic record with a lift of 183kg that helped him win a Gold medal in Rio, Brazil in 2016.
Statistics of achievements since joining weightlifting in 2005, Le Van Cong is the most successful athlete of the weightlifting team in particular and Vietnam Paralympic Sports in general with a huge collection of medals from regional, continental and world tournaments.
The most notable of these are 1 Gold medal, 1 Silver medal at the Paralympic arena, 2 world championships (2017, 2023) and 1 Gold medal, 1 Bronze medal at the Asian Para Games and maintaining the No. 1 position at the ASEAN Para Games from 2007 to present.
Up to now, Le Van Cong is still the first and only person to win a Gold medal and own 2 medals in the Paralympic arena out of 1 Gold medal, 2 Silver medals, 2 Bronze medals that Vietnam's Paralympic Sports have won after 6 Games since 2000.
Le Van Cong is a typical example of the effort to rise up, overcome adversity with an unfortunate fate to reach the peak of sports competition. The athlete from Quang Tri both trained and worked to make a living with many different jobs and his career was interrupted many times due to accidents in daily life but still came back strong.
Over the years, due to the large amount of daily training, Le Van Cong has suffered from a chronic shoulder injury with many serious muscle and joint injuries, requiring frequent painkiller injections to train and compete. After the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China (October 2023) and the World Cup in Thailand (May 2024), Le Van Cong will both train and treat the injury to maintain his performance.
The 2024 Paralympics marks the fourth time having the honor of participating in the largest sports playground for people with disabilities on the planet. At the age of 40, Le Van Cong is still in the top 3 athletes in the world in the 49kg category and is the biggest medal hope of the Vietnam Sports Delegation for People with Disabilities.
However, the increasing age factor and the impact of injuries have put a lot of pressure on the Quang Tri athlete. Currently, Le Van Cong is still trying to maintain his professional parameters at a level that is competitive for a position in the top of the world. Improving and enhancing his performance to reach the world record level like 7 years ago is almost impossible.
From Paris (France), coach Le Quang Thai said that since being officially qualified to participate in the 2024 Paralympics, Le Van Cong and his teammates in the National Para Weightlifting Team have been actively preparing professionally. He shared: "Le Van Cong's injury is very difficult to fully recover from, but the coaching staff has calculated a training plan, combined with daily treatment and massage to ensure his physical condition during the competition."
According to the registration list for the 49kg category, Le Van Cong will compete with 8 athletes from Algeria, France, India, Saudi Arabia, China, Hungary, Türkiye and Jordan. They are all the best weightlifters in the world at the moment and are in the top 10 in the world according to the rankings of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Le Van Cong is the 4th oldest person on the list, only younger than 3 athletes born in 1983, 1981 and 1976.
In addition, according to the current IPC rankings based on the best results since the beginning of 2024, Le Van Cong is currently ranked 4th in the world with a weight of 168kg, behind Omar Qarada (Jordan - holding the number 1 position with 176kg) and Abdullah Kayapinar (Türkiye, with 175kg in the number 2 position). Weightlifter Muslim Al-Sudani (Iraqi) is ranked 3rd (173kg) but will move up to compete in the 54kg category at the 2024 Paralympics.
In the competition on the evening of September 4, fans were eager to witness the competition and chase between Le Van Cong and Omar Qarada. The Jordanian athlete born in 1981 has been a familiar opponent of Le Van Cong since 2008 and has often faced him at the Asian Para Games, Paralympics and world championships.
Based on specific achievements, Le Van Cong has had 3 impressive victories over Omar Qarada. The first time was at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, the remaining 2 times were both at the world championships in 2017 and 2023, when Le Van Cong won the Gold medal, and Omar Qarada won the Silver medal. However, the Jordanian athlete also defeated Le Van Cong twice with no less special marks.
Most recently, he won the Gold medal at the 2023 Asian Para Games. Before that, he won the Gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, and Le Van Cong won the Silver medal.
In terms of recent achievements, Omar Qarada is slightly better than Le Van Cong and this signals that the rematch between the two weightlifters will be fierce and exciting. Their ages are almost the same, their international competition experience is also extensive and they understand their opponents' abilities very well, the competition will definitely be a fight for every kilogram from the registered weight.
According to coach Le Quang Thai: “Omar Qarada has been Le Van Cong’s main rival for many years and he is an excellent athlete in the 49kg category. The Paralympic competition will certainly be as difficult as the previous ones. However, we entered the training sessions with a relaxed spirit and entered the arena with high determination, first of all we need to overcome ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Head of the delegation Nguyen Hong Minh expressed: “Weightlifting is a sport that brings a lot of hope for winning medals for the Vietnamese Paralympic Sports Delegation at the 2024 Paralympics and Le Van Cong is the brightest face with achievements among the top athletes in the world. We are also looking forward to witnessing Le Van Cong's impressive performance in France this time.”
Vietnamese sports fans are also waiting for Le Van Cong to shine once again to bring home the third medal at the Paralympic arena after his excellent achievements in Rio and Tokyo in previous years. The challenge is huge when there are many more potential weightlifters and the main opponent has impressive achievements, but it is expected that Le Van Cong will leave a special mark at the age of 40.
On September 4, weightlifter Nguyen Binh An also competed in the 54kg category of the 2024 Paralympic Weightlifting. According to the registration, there were 10 athletes participating and all were in the top 15 in the world according to the IPC rankings.
Performance statistics show that to win a 2024 Paralympic medal, Nguyen Binh An will have to compete with many strong opponents.
Most notably, Pablo Barrientos (Cuba) is the No. 1 in 2024 with a record of 183kg. In addition, Binh An will also reunite with the reigning champion of the 2023 Asian Para Games David Degtyraev (Kazakhstan) and the current runner-up Yang Jinglang (China).
Not counting other opponents, Nguyen Binh An will have to compete fiercely with the three athletes mentioned above and needs to improve his previous best result of 184kg to have any hope of winning a medal.
Along with Le Van Cong, Nguyen Binh An is also one of the most outstanding athletes of Vietnamese disabled weightlifting at present.
Vietnamplus.vn
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/paralympic-2024-niem-hy-vong-lon-nhat-cua-the-thao-viet-nam-xuat-tran-post974135.vnp
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