HÀ NỘI — Track-and-field athletes will begin competing at the Olympics on August 13 in Rio de Janeiro.

Nguyễn Thành Ngưng will walk the men’s 20km race early in the morning Hà Nội time. Runner Nguyễn Thị Huyền will enter the qualification round of the women’s 400m in the evening.

Huyền’s second event is the 400m hurdle on August 16.

Both were among athletes who arrived in Brazil two weeks before the opening ceremony for training and to familiarise themselves with the climate and terrain.

“It is my first Olympics. I am just a small fish in a big sea. I am dizzy with the atmosphere. But I have prepared well in terms of mentality and get ready for the race,” said Ngưng.

“There is nothing more important than a clear mind in a competition with the world’s best athletes. It will help me narrow the gap with them. My target here is to improve my personal best,” he added.

Ngưng last month trained in Thailand and improved his physique and speed.

His best time was 1hr 23.29min at the Asian 20km Race Walking Championship early this year, which earned him a ticket to Rio.

Huyền, who trained in Hà Nội, is in peak form, as she was at the Southeast Asian Games last June where she qualified for the Olympics.

“They are given best conditions in training to prepare for the Games,” says coach Vũ Ngọc Lợi.

“But the Olympics is a really big competition for Vietnamese athletes so their targets are to beat their own records,” he says.

Huyền ran 52sec in the 400m and 56.15sec in the 400m hurdles.

Olympics updates

Hoàng Tấn Tài ranked seventh in the B Group of the 85kg category in weightlifting yesterday, lifting a total weight in snatch and clean and jerk of 325kg.

Bardis Giovanni Battista (France) won gold with a total weight of 357kg, Iakovidis Theodoros (Greece), silver with 350kg and Plamondon Pascal (Canada), bronze with 345kg.

In the snatch, Tài lifted of 145kg while in clean and jerk, he lifted 180kg.— VNS