Taekwondo

Bạc Thị Khiêm takes silver from the Canada Open taekwondo tournament during the Tết holiday. Photo sport5.vn

HÀ NỘI — Sportspeople have no time to enjoy the Tết (Lunar New Year) Festival as they are busy for tournaments which are Olympic qualification ongoing around the world.

Taekwondo martial artist Bạc Thị Khiêm has won Việt Nam's first international medal of the lunar year over the weekend.

Khiêm and teammates took part in the Canada Open in Vancouver.

Competing in the women's 67kg category, Khiêm was seeded No 6. She met no difficulty in the qualifiers before beating No 2 Leslie Soltero from Mexico in the semi-finals.

In the final, Khiêm could not overcome No 1 Milena Titoneli from Brazil and received silver.

Along with the medal, Khiêm also earned points for her world and Olympic rankings.

Two other athletes, Trương Thị Kim Tuyền (women's 53kg) and Trần Thị Ánh Tuyết (women's 62kg) were disqualified in the quarter-finals.

After Canada, Vietnamese fighters will take part in the US Open on February 16-18 in Nevada.

While the taekwondo squad are away, the judo martial artists arrived home on February 12 after their European tour.

Trio Chu Đức Đạt, Hoàng Thị Tình and Nguyễn Ngọc Diễm Phương participated in the Györ European Open 2024 in Hungary and the Grand Prix France 2024 in February and the Grand Prix Portugal 2024 in January.

All tournaments were Olympic system events which delivered points for participants.

"My players will practise at home for one week before they fly back to Europe for the Warsaw European Open 2024 on February 24-25 in Poland," Nguyễn Hữu An, general secretary of the Việt Nam Judo Federation said.

"They will leave for Warsaw on February 21. All fighters are asked to perform their best to earn points for our Olympic campaign."

After Poland, the national team will compete at the Antalya Grand Slam 2024 on March 29-31 in Antalya, Turkey.

A month later, they will fight at the 2024 Asian Judo Championships from April 20 to 23 in Hong Kong which is part of the IJF World Tour and during the 2024 Summer Olympics qualification period.

Nguyễn Văn Khánh Phong and teammates will compete in the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup on February 15-18 in Cairo, Egypt. Photo nld.com.vn

Also on February 12, director of the Sports Authority of Việt Nam Đặng Hà Việt visited the national team of gymnastics in Hà Nội.

The team will compete in the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup on February 15-18 in Egypt.

The squad of four athletes Nguyễn Văn Khánh Phong, Đặng Ngọc Xuân Thiện, Văn Vỹ Lương and Trịnh Hải Khang and coach Trương Minh Sang practised throughout the Tết at the Hà Nội Sports and Training Centre.

At the meet, Việt encouraged and gave lucky money to all athletes and asked them to try their best at the competition.

In Cairo, Asian Games silver medallist Phong will take part in the men's rings; SEA Games champion Thiện will compete in the men's pommel horse; Khang will participate in the men's floor and vault; and Lương will compete in the men's floor and parallel bars.

After the Egypt World Cup, they will continue hunting their Olympic spots at the Germany World Cup from February 22-25 in Cottbus. VNS