Nguyễn Thị Huyền in the women's 400m hurdles at the HCM City Open International Track and Field on Thursday. — Photo sggp.org

HÀ NỘI — Southeast Asian Games winner Nguyễn Thị Huyền marked her comeback with a gold medal at the HCM City Open International Track and Field on Thursday.

Nam Định Province’s Huyền, who withdrew from tournaments last year because of pregnancy, surprised supporters and rivals at Thống Nhất Stadium and easily won the women’s 400m hurdle event.

Huyền was first with a time of 59.18sec which was about three seconds behind her personal best at the 2017 SEA Games.

She was followed by Mandy Goh Li of Malaysia and Benny Nontanam of Thailand.

The mother of a 10-month-old girl later topped podium a second time as she and teammates won the women’s 4x200m relay.

HCM City came second and An Giang were third.

“Winning golds during this event is a good sign for me. It was easy to finish first because my rivals in the 400m hurdles were young and inexperienced. One thing is that I am not pleased with my result,” said Huyền.

The 26-year-old planned to work harder so that she could shine again at the upcoming national championship in September.

Huyền also hoped to have a berth in the national team at the Philippines’ SEA Games in November.

In other events, Ka Hoa of Ninh Thuận won and set a new record in the women’s shot-put with a throw of 14.56m; Nguyễn Văn Lai of the Military team topped the men’s 5000m after 15min 9.23sec; Mark Harry Diones of the Philippines won the triple jump with 16.13m; Hwang Hyeon U of South Korea took home a gold in the men’s 400m hurdles in 50.66sec; and Ranasinghe Mudiyanselage of Sri Lanka triumphed in the javelin throw with 74.58m. — VNS