Jujitsu

Dương Thị Thanh Minh (right) and Lê Duy Thành won two of five gold medals for Việt Nam at the seventh Asian Jujitsu Championship in Thailand. Photo courtesy of Thanh Minh

HÀ NỘI  The national jujitsu team returned home with five gold medals from the Asian championship on March 1.

In the last day of competition on February 28, Vietnamese fighters secured three titles by Hoàng Thị Nhật Quế in the women's over-70kg contact class, Phùng Thị Huệ in the women's 45kg contact class and Dương Thị Thanh Minh in the women's 52kg contact class.

Earlier, Huệ took the first gold at the tournament for Việt Nam in 45kg fighting pool on February 25. Lê Duy Thành won the men's 94kg category.

In addition, the team also took two silver and 17 bronze medals from the Bangkok championship to finish fourth in the medal tally.

Thailand topped the ranking with 16 golds, followed by Kazakhstan and the UAE.

Organisers announced that more than 500 athletes from 30 countries and territories competed at the tournament, a record number of participants. Among them, 23 teams grabbed medals. 

According to Trần Văn Thạch, head of Việt Nam team, all 35 athletes were the best of Việt Nam recently. Many of them will take part in the coming 32nd SEA Games in May in Cambodia.

"It is a good warm up for us to prepare for the SEA Games and further, the 19th Asian Games," said coach Bùi Đình Tiến.

"Kudos to my athletes who showed great determination and spirit. However, there are still many works to do ahead of important Games. We must keep focused and practise harder to bring home better results." VNS