HÀ NỘI — Nguyễn Thành Nhưng added the eighth title in a row to his medal collection after winning at the National Athletics Championships on Wednesday in HCM City.

The walker from Đà Nẵng City finished the men’s 20-km event in 1hr 38.21min.

Ngưng and teammate Võ Xuân Vĩnh quickly left the whole group behind to take lead. They were together almost the whole race; Ngưng separated away in the last metre to take a gold medal.

Vĩnh came second with a 4sec time difference.

Võ Nhật Cường of Quảng Ngãi secured the third position, clocking 1:46.09.

“Honestly, I have been much stronger than Vĩnh during the trainings and in the previous competitions. The other athletes of this category were not our worthy rivals. It was not difficult to walk away from him but the race would be less boring having him walking along with me,” Ngưng told the Việt Nam News.

“I also tried to set a new record here but the road with small macadams prevented me from doing my best,” he said.

It was the first gold and silver for Đà Nẵng after three days of competitions.

The women’s title went to SEA Games silver holder Phan Thị Bích Hà of Vĩnh Phúc Province.

Hà has been No 1 in this category after Nguyễn Thị Thanh Phúc of Đà Nẵng retired last year.

Hà met no difficulty to prove her power against the rest of the athletes. She came first with a time of 1:50:38. Her teammate, Nguyễn Thị Thùy Dung, finished third and took a bronze.

Their medals were also the first for their province in HCM City tournament.

Phạm Thị Thu Trang of Hà Nội claimed the silver, four minutes after Hà.

It was the only medal of the capital city team but it helped them maintain the top position at the event.

The marathon events saw many runners withdraw. Some of them had health problems while the others were too exhausted to finish 42km.

Bùi Thế Anh and Trịnh Quốc Lượng of the Military and Vũ Văn Sơn of Ninh Bình led the tournament from the beginning. They were neck-to-neck but it was Anh who made a stronger sprint near the finish line and took the men’s gold after 2:44.12.

Sơn and Lượng were second and third, respectively.

The women’s discipline saw a new winner when the reigning champion Hoàng Thị Thanh of the Military could not compete because of injury.

Hoàng Thị Ngọc Hoa of Bình Phước came first clocking 3:14.16.

Khánh Hòa’ Nguyễn Thụy Ý Tiên bagged a silver and Lê Thị Thoa of the Military earned a bronze.

Hà Nội remained on top of the medal tally with four golds, six silvers and one bronze.

The Military replaced HCM City as the second-placed team, pocketing four golds and four silvers. HCM City was third with three golds and four silvers. — VNS