Athletes compete in the National Sports Games in 2022. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HÀ NỘI — The National Athletics Championship will be the perfect opportunity for athletes to shine ahead of the Olympic Games and Southeast Asian Games.

The tournament, the most important domestic event of the year, will be held from October 20 to 28 at the National Military Training Centre in Miếu Môn, about 40km from Hà Nội centre.

Athletes from 58 teams will take part in 50 events for men and women as well as some mixed team events.

Strong competitors like SEA Games champions Nguyễn Thị Oanh from Bắc Giang; Nguyễn Thị Huyền from Nam Định; Nguyễn Thị Hằng from Hà Nội, Nguyễn Trung Cường from Hà Tĩnh, and other title favourites have registered to compete.

According to the Việt Nam Athletics Federation, the championship is an opportunity to evaluate the training quality of cities and provinces.

Coaches can pick young talents who will receive intensive training at national sports training centres. They will be prepared to compete in international tournaments in the near future.

Meanwhile, excellent athletes will be called to the national team to train for the 2024 Paris Olympics' qualification and Thailand's 33th SEA Games in 2025.

National team athletes are title favourites in all categories. However, experts still believe there may be some surprised in store.

"In athletics, athletes' results are accurately measured in centimetres and counted in seconds," said Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, general secretary of the Việt Nam Athletics Federation.

"Normally, the winners would be those who have spent years training and competing.

"However, we still wait for a surprise. We hope to find new faces to come out from this championship."

Việt Nam completed a successful tournament at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia with 12 gold medals, placing No. 2 in the athletics' ranking table.

However, they failed in the 19th Asian Games in China as none of athletes in the 12 events could secure a single medal.

At present, no Vietnamese athlete has earned a place in the Paris Games. — VNS