Head of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the 19th Asian Games Dang Ha Viet: "Improving sports achievements cannot happen overnight"

Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training - Head of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the 19th Asian Games Dang Ha Viet

Reporter: Sir, the 19th Asian Games just ended last night, October 8, in Hangzhou (China). Looking back at the competition process of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation, what makes you satisfied and what do you regret?

- Head of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the 19th Asian Games Dang Ha Viet: Before leaving, the Vietnamese Sports Delegation was assigned the task by the leaders of the Party, the State and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Each member of the Delegation is a cultural ambassador. During the participation in the Games, the Vietnamese Sports Delegation has performed well as a cultural ambassador in the way of living, working, exchanging and working professionally. In terms of expertise, at the end of the 19th Asian Games, the Vietnamese Sports Delegation won 3 gold medals, 5 silver medals, 19 bronze medals. The delegation has completed the target of 2-5 gold medals. What we are satisfied with is that the athletes have tried their best to compete for the flag and colors of the Fatherland, including sports that have completed their tasks excellently such as the Shooting and Sepak Takraw teams, each team won 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal; the Karate team won 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal, 2 bronze medals. Although many sports did not win gold medals such as Gymnastics, Archery, Volleyball... they showed remarkable progress of young athletes.

In terms of performance parameters, in addition to the excellence of the above sports, there are also a number of other achievements, although not as expected but still worth encouraging, such as Nguyen Huy Hoang's achievement of 7 minutes 51 seconds 44, in the 800m freestyle swimming event, which was 2.88 seconds better than the time Hoang won the bronze medal at the 18th Asian Games. Or in the 4 x 400m relay event of Athletics, although only finishing in 4th place, the achievement of 3 minutes 31 seconds 61 surpassed the mark of 3 minutes 32.36 at the 2023 Asian Championship. In particular, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team achieved the best position at the Asian Games. Although losing to Thailand 0-3 in the bronze medal match, finishing fourth overall, the team had victories that delighted fans against South Korea and North Korea.

The 19th Asian Games have ended but will certainly leave many regrets. A typical example of this regret is racer Nguyen Thi That, right before the Games, That was injured and had only been training for a month but competed with great determination to win the gold medal for Vietnam. The situation at the finish line was divided into 2 groups, That was stuck in the back group so this athlete decided to risk withdrawing early from a distance of 300m (usually less than 200m) to compete for the gold medal and only lost to the Gold Medalist by 1 car body. In Boxing, we have high expectations for athletes Nguyen Thi Tam, Ha Thi Linh...; In Karate, we expect athletes Hoang Thi My Tam, Do Thanh Nhan, Nguyen Thi Ngoan... Athlete Nguyen Thi Tam (Boxing) was injured since SEA Games 32, while the other athletes, partly because of the host, partly because of the unexpected factor from North Korea and especially the stressful competition mentality, did not compete to their full potential.

In the Shooting event, although Pham Quang Huy excellently won the gold medal, we were also very sorry that Phan Cong Minh, Ha Minh Thanh, Trinh Thu Vinh, before the Games, trained and competed very steadily, but in the final, the athletes had to go through and were gradually eliminated after 12 rounds of shooting. This requires the athlete's mentality to be truly stable and steadfast in order to be successful. The 1,500m distance of swimmer Huy Hoang was also expected to achieve a medal and Olympic A standard. During practice, Hoang swam with a time of under 15 minutes, however, because he was too determined to change the color of the Games medal, he could not maintain the swimming pace and optimize the efficiency when turning, so the results were not as expected.

Karate team won 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal, 2 bronze medals at Asian Games 19

Sir, the competitions at this Congress have proven your point that our athletes are at a disadvantage because they are physically weaker. So what should we do to solve this problem?

- We now have a comprehensive project to improve the physical strength and stature of Vietnamese people. This project is implemented not only to contribute to the goal of a strong people and prosperous country, as President Ho Chi Minh wished, but also to help Vietnam's high-performance sports achieve better results. However, the implementation of the project is not as expected, we do not have smooth coordination from all resources, from health, education to sports... so we cannot achieve the goal. Therefore, the work of selecting athletes and talents for Vietnamese sports still has many difficulties. An example seen right at this Asian Games is women's football. Vietnamese female football players are facing the risk that the Philippines team will be the force of women's football in Southeast Asia, especially with the current trend of naturalization, Philippine female players have the advantage of height and physical strength to aim for a higher goal of the Olympics. Rowing, we are very strong in the light boat event and it is the event that brought home the gold medal of the previous Games and continues to be invested in. That is why you did not include the light boat event in the competition at the 19th Asian Games, the light boat athletes had to switch to heavy boats to practice from the beginning of 2023. Our athletes are all short, small, and light while the shortest female athlete in China is 1.8m tall. For Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, it is very difficult to select female athletes to compete in heavy boat racing in particular and other events in general who are 1.8m tall and have suitable qualities.

Despite the difficulties, with the close guidance of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Physical Education and Sports will certainly strive to find suitable solutions. However, developing high-performance sports will not happen overnight, we will have Olympic and Asian champions. It will be a process that requires a systematic system, from developing physical education to determining which subjects are key, there must be a selection system in 63 provinces and cities, and right from the primary level, there must be a competition system, from which many talents can be selected for Vietnam Sports.

Talent selection for Vietnam is like “panning for gold”, if we “pan” for sand in 63 provinces and cities and in the primary school system, we will find many talents. Currently, although we say we are investing heavily, it is only focusing on training and competition at the national and youth levels. We need a comprehensive, scientific and methodical process, from selection, training, coaching, recovery, injury prevention and treatment, and a scientific team with modern equipment to support the work of testing, evaluating athletes, analyzing opponents and especially key sports need a competition system from the primary level.

Some people say that we are the leader in Southeast Asia but “fall” at the Asian Games and Olympics. So what do you think is the reason for this situation?

- The Asian Games and the Olympics are the two top arenas of the continent and the world. To invest in achieving results in these two largest arenas, we have determined that there is still a lot of work to be done. Sports science researchers around the world have pointed out that high-performance sports are fierce competitions between major economies. At the Olympic arena, that competition will take place between the sports of the world's major economies, namely the US, China, and Japan, as shown in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics standings. At the Asian Games, there will be a competition between the continent's largest economies, namely China, Japan, and South Korea. These are also the three leading powers at the 19th Asian Games.

Large economies will solve many problems of high-performance sports. That is investment, application of science and technology, high-quality human resources, calling for funding sources to invest in high-performance sports... As for us, although the Party, the State, all levels, sectors and localities are always interested, but to achieve the desired sports results, we need many more factors from investment to training, selection, and tournament systems. The process of training a sports talent usually takes about 10 years, during which there is still the process of "panning for sand, searching for gold", sometimes thousands of athletes participate in professional training to have a talent at the continental and world level, this requires a large source of funding and a scientific and methodical way of working.

Analyzing the gold medal-winning sports of Southeast Asian countries, we can clearly see that most of their medals come from socialized sports and traditional sports with a competition system from primary school level: Thailand 12 gold medals (2 Golf, 1 E Sport, 3 sailing, 4 Sepak Takraw); Malaysia 6 gold medals (1 equestrian, 1 sailing, 3 Squash), Singapore 3 gold medals (2 sailing gold medals)...

Although the set target was achieved, the sports delegation did not achieve the expected results. On behalf of the leadership of the Vietnamese sports delegation, I would like to apologize to fans nationwide and hope that in the coming time, TTVN will continue to receive attention from all levels, sectors, and fans, and we will continue to strive to improve the achievements of Vietnamese sports.

Thank you!

THU SAM performed (from Hangzhou, China)

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