HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam earned three gold medals at the first World Tae kwon do Beach Championship, which closed in Greece on May 6.

Trio Lê Hiếu Nghĩa,  Nguyễn Thiên Phụng and Hồ Thanh Phong triumphed in the men’s team over-17 poomsae (performance) event.

China came in second and was followed by Finland.

Nguyễn Thị Lệ Kim,  Trần Tiến Khoa earned the second gold medals in the mixed pair freestyle poomsae.

Their teammates Lê Thanh Trung and Trương Phạm Phương Khanh finished second.

The bronze medal went to a duo from Turkey.

The third gold medal was earned by five athletes, including world champion Châu Tuyết Vân in the mixed team of free style poomsae.

Turkey and China placed second and third, respectively.

It was Vân’s third medal received in Greece.

She earlier took a silver medal in the women’s team recognised poomsae and a bronze in the individual free style poomsae.

The Vietnamese athletes also pocketed one silver medal and four bronze medals in the first day of the competition.

"The new style and rules, as well as way of judging participants’ performances, make us feel free and comfortable to show off our best skills," said coach Nguyễn Thanh Huy of Việt Nam.

"Freestyle performance and special uniforms that we can decide to wear ourselves also attracted more attention from spectators, who were really excited while watching our shows all day.

"It is a great warm-up for our world beach games, to be organised in 2018," he added.

Covered in 25 categories, the Championships attracted large crowds. At the end of the competition, the athletes gathered to freely display their techniques.

Among the 26 countries participating, the top five  places went to Thailand, Korea, Turkey, Việt Nam, and China. — VNS