Nguyễn Duy Tuyến celebrates winning his gold medal at the World Pencak Silat Championship which concluded in Malaysia. Photo OneSILAT

Pencak Silat

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese athletes won six gold medals in the tanding (combat) events of the World Pencak Silat Championship which concluded in Malaysia on Sunday.

Hoàng Mai Anh was the first one to bring home a gold medal for the national team at this year's tournament, defeating Indonesian opponent Fransiska Dewi in the final of the women’s 85kg category.

Nguyễn Duy Tuyến retained his world title after overwhelming Thai boxer Pimpirat Tonkhieo in the final of men’s 85kg.

At the world championship in 2018 in Singapore, Tuyến was made champion of this weight class.

This year, Tuyến also triumphed at the 2022 Southeast Asian Pencak Silat Championship as well as the 31st SEA Games held in Việt Nam in May.

Following Tuyến, Anh Thi Hoa also competed in the final and defeated Indonesian Nia Larasati in the women’s 80kg division.

In other finals, Lê Văn Toàn took gold in the men’s open event after beating Bakhasyyev of Kazakhstan 23-4. Quàng Thị Thu Nghĩa proved her power in the women’s 75kg when she bested Malaysian Mohamed Nasir 60-35 in the final.

In the men’s 70kg category, Phạm Tuấn Anh showed his power with a knockout win over Abdul Raazaq of Singapore to win gold for the Vietnamese team.

In addition to the gold medals, Việt Nam won four silver and 11 bronze medals.

Việt Nam sent a young but strong team to compete at this year’s event. They joined 80 other delegations at the 19th edition of the tournament from July 26-31.

The Malaysian event has been the third international event for the Vietnamese pencak silat team this year. They finished on top of the Southeast Asian Championship in Singapore in February with nine golds and dominated the Southeast Asian Games in Hà Nội in May, winning six titles. VNS