Vietnamese martial artists scooped up more than five gold medals to dominate the Southeast Asia Pencak Silat tournament, which wrapped up in Thanh Hoa Gymnasium in Thanh Hoa Province yesterday.
HCM CITY —
After a week of competition, the country won a total of 14 gold, five silver and three bronze medals.
The second place went to Malaysia with six gold, nine silver and five bronze medals while Brunei was third with two gold medals, one silver medal and seven bronze medals.
This is also the third time in succession Viet Nam have finished first in the annual regional tournament, which made its debut in 2008 in HCM City.
In the last day of competition yesterday, Viet Nam won five gold medals and two silver medals in the tanding (combat) event.
Gold medals were won by Le Thi Phi Nga in the women's 50kg class, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy in the women's 65kg category, Nguyen Thai Linh in the men's 65kg class, Nguyen Van Hoang in the men's 55kg class and Bui Van Doan in the men's 60kg class.
All of them beat either Singaporean or Malaysian opponents in the finals.
Two bronze medalists went to Tran Huynh Thanh Quoc and Huynh Thi Thu Hong.
Some budding young athletes are spotted in the tournament like Nguyen Van Hoang, Bui Van Doan and Diep Ngoc Vu Minh who is expected to help the country successfully compete in the World Championship next December and maintain its domination in the sport at the Southeast Asia Games in Indonesia next year.
The competition started on Thursday with the participation of 95 martial artists from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor Leste and Viet Nam. — VNS