Nguyễn Thị Hương and Diệp Thị Hương celebrate their win after crosssing the finish line. It is the first gold medal of Việt Nam at the 33rd SEA Games.  Photo Việt Nam Sports Team

BANGKOK — Việt Nam have won two gold medals in the first official competition day of the 33rd SEA Games on December 10 afternoon in Thailand.

The first gold went to the duo Nguyễn Thị Hương and Diệp Thị Hương in the 500m women's pair canoeing event.

The Vietnamese team, who are Southeast Asian champions, showed their higher level compared to all other rivals to take the lead from the beginning of the race. They finished first in a time of 2min 6.487sec, leaving the Thai and Indonesian pairs far behind in the second and third positions, respectively.

"I have won many golds from the previous Games, but it is my first one in this category. That makes me so excited and very happy," said Nguyễn Hương, who made a record of five golds at the last Games in Cambodia.

Vietnamese team on the No 1 podium at the victory ceremony.

 "We meet a little challenge when competing here, where it is much hotter than in Việt Nam, and the wind is strong. However, we are really focused and tried hard to win," she said.

She said that after the qualification, coaches and players talked together and identified errors that must be fixed in the final. They were both confident and nervous ahead of the race, but finally they made the top podium and hoped that their win would push the entire delegation to play well in the competitions.

Meanwhile, Diệp Hương was a little shy, saying she was strongly supported by her senior teammate, who repeatedly encouraged her, saying 'never think about giving up'. 

She added that the SEA Games win would push her in preparation for the next competitions here, as well as other international events, including the Asian Games next year.

In addition to the gold, the team also grabbed silver in the kayaking mixed pair 500m by Võ Duy Thành and Đỗ Thị Thanh Thảo; and bronze in the kayaking men's individual 500m by Phạm Hồng Quân.

The second gold of Việt Nam belonged to the taekwondo's mixed team poomsae  (performance) freestyle.

Việt Nam's Lê Trần Kim Uyên, Nguyễn Xuân Thành, Trần Đăng Khoa, Trần Hồ Duy, Nguyễn Thị Y Bình and Nguyễn Phan Khánh Hân presented outstanding performance, perfect technique that went well with beautiful music. They persuaded all juries to give them the highest points of 8.060.

Thailand and the Philippines came second and third.  

Vietnamese SEA Games champions in taekwondo poomsae event.

 "We faced a small disadvantage as the first team to perform. But we told each other to deliver our best, especially after we regrettably lost our gold in the previous mixed pair event," said captain Nguyễn Phan Khánh Hân.  

"We have spent months practising together and expected to win gold in this event. We were shaking while waiting and watching our rivals' performance. But we made it!"

Earlier, Nguyễn Trọng Phúc and Nguyễn Thị Kim Hà came second in the mixed pair. They delivered mastering technical accuracy and strong presentation performance, but it was decided that they were not as good as Singapore in the final.

The Vietnamese coaches sent a complaint to the jury, asking them to watch the replay clip to see Singapore's three technical errors, but their request was denied.

Later, Hà and teammates, Lê Ngọc Hân and Lê Trần Kim Uyên, earned a bronze in the women's trio event.

Also in the afternoon, Vietnamese athletes won silver and five bronze medals in jujitsu.

Other events are still ongoing and will be updated on vietnamnews.vn. VNS