Vietnamese table tennis duo Đinh Anh Hoàng (right) and Trần Mai Ngọc (left) celebrate beating Singaporean's Clarence Chew & Jian Cheng yesterday to take gold medal for Việt Nam. VNA/VNS Photo

SEA Games

PHNOM PENH — Vietnamese table tennis duo Đinh Anh Hoàng and Trần Mai Ngọc successfully defeated Singaporean duo Clarence Chew and Jian Cheng 3-1 in Cambodia on Sunday, winning a gold medal for Việt Nam for the first time in 26 years.

Not since Vũ Mạnh Cường (who now trains Hoàng and Ngọc) and Ngô Thu Thủy won gold at the 1997 SEA Games has Việt Nam secured the top prize.

Vietnamese table tennis has yet to bring home any medals at the SEA Games, so fans also had high hopes for Hoàng and Ngọc.

Ngọc and Hoàng led 2-1 after three sets and in the fourth set, the Vietnamese athletes played with concentration to secure a 15-12 victory, bringing home the historic gold medal.

"I am very happy that my players have re-established my own achievement after 26 years. It's so amazing and congratulations to Hoàng and Ngọc,” coach Cường said.

Also yesterday, Việt Nam also won gold in the 12-seater mixed event of traditional boat racing, in which the team had to compete with strong rivals from Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

The Vietnamese traditional boat racing team. VNA/VNS Photo

In the final round first leg, the Vietnamese team took the lead finishing the race in 2 minutes and 12.668 seconds, followed by Myanmar with 2 minutes and 14.462 seconds. In the second leg, they ranked second with 2 minutes and 13.824 seconds after Myanmar with 2 minutes and 12.654 seconds.

Scoring an aggregate result of 4 minutes and 26.492 seconds, Việt Nam pocketed the gold medal. Meanwhile, the silver and bronze medals went to Myanmar and host Cambodia, respectively.

On Saturday, Vietnamese athletes also won a gold medal in the women’s three-seater event of traditional boat racing with a result of 2 minutes and 49.560 seconds.

In other news, weightlifter Trần Minh Trí won gold medal in the men’s 67kg and he also broke the SEA Games record in the clean and jerk of this category.

Trí lifted 306kg in total, 1kg more than Witsanu Chantri of Thailand to bring home gold medal. The bronze medal went to Mohamad Yasin of Indonesia with 304kg.

In the snatch, Trí successfully lifted 130kg, ranking only fourth. However in the clean and jerk, he lifted 176kg to set a new SEA Games record, breaking the previous record of 173kg.

"I was happy to win the SEA Games gold medal for the first time in my life. I was so surprised because after finishing the snatch division, I thought I failed,” Trí said.

This is the second gold medal for Vietnamese weightlifting at the Games 32. Lại Gia Thành won gold in the men's 55kg category on Saturday.

Meanwhile athletes in aerobics and fencing made impressive performances to win three more golds for Việt Nam.

Trần Ngọc Thúy Vi and Lê Hoàng Phong took gold in the mixed doubles of aerobics sport, while Trần Ngọc Thúy Vi, Lê Hoàng Phong, Vương Hoài Ân, Nguyễn Chế Thanh and Nguyễn Việt Anh took another gold in the five-person team category.

Bùi Đình Quyết celebrates winning gold in arnis. VNA/VNS Photo

In the final of the women's sabre team event, Phùng Thị Khánh Linh, Phạm Thị Thu Hoài, Bùi Thị Thu Hà and Lê Minh Hằng defeated the Philippines team 45-37 to take gold.

More gold medals also came to Việt Nam in the Chinese chess, judo, wrestling, taekwondo, finswimming and arnis. VNS