Youth Olympics

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam aims to earn 10 slots to compete in the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games, to be held on October 6-18 in Argentina.

According to Hoàng Quốc Vinh, head of the Elite Sports Department, Việt Nam now has three official tickets to Argentina. The ticket holders include 18-year-old Đỗ Hồng Ngọc, who won a silver medal in the world junior boxing championship; 16-year-old Nguyễn Hữu Kim Sơn, who won 14 gold medals to help Việt Nam top the medal tally at the Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Brunei, and a to-be-determined women’s weightlifter.

At the world junior weightlifting championship last year, Việt Nam’s female team ranked 15th and so were awarded one slot to compete in the Youth Olympic this year. The leaders of the weightlifting section will carefully choose a player to compete in the women’s 48kg category.

The other ticket hopefuls are martial artists Hồ Thị Kim Ngân, Nguyễn Ánh Nguyệt and Nguyễn Thanh Trường.

The 16-year-old Ngân of An Giang won gold medals in the ASEAN junior taekwondo championship 2017, South Korea taekwondo open, and a gold medal in the world junior event in 2016. The 1.8m tall girl is ranked sixth in the world, behind athletes from Cuba, Iran, England, Japan and France.

Karate martial artist Nguyệt of Hà Nội is world junior No 10 in the women’s 53 kg and Trường of HCM City is world junior No 12 in the men’s 68 kg.

“Nguyệt and Trường will take part in the Asian junior taekwondo championship in Japan in May, the qualifying round for the world junior event in June in Bulgaria to qualify to Argentina,” said coach Phạm Hồng Hà.

Additionally, 18-year-old judoka Lê Anh Tài, world junior No 7, is also expected to earn enough points to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games.

Other athletes could win bids to the Buenos Aires games in archery, fencing, athletics, wrestling and badminton.

Việt Nam won a total of two golds, two silvers and two bronzes at Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and 2014.

At the Games in 2010, weightlifter Thạch Kim Tuấn won a gold medal in the men’s 56kg. In taekwondo, Nguyễn Thanh Thảo bagged a silver medal in the women’s 55kg and Nguyễn Quốc Cường took a bronze in the men’s side.

At the Games in 2014, swimmer Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên brought home a gold medal in the women’s 200m medley.

The Buenos Aires 2018 event is the third edition of the Summer Youth Olympics, a major international sports event in which culture and education are also of great importance. It is the first Youth Games for either summer or winter to be held outside Eurasia. — VNS