Nguyễn Thị Huyền (middle) performs at the National Athletics Championship yesterday. Photo zing.vn

HÀ NỘI  Former Southeast Asian (SEA) Games champion Nguyễn Thị Huyền won her second gold medal at the National Athletics Championship at the Thống Nhất Stadium in HCM City yesterday.

The northern province of Nam Định-born athlete triumphed in the women’s 400m hurdles in a time of 58.25sec.

Nguyễn Thị Oanh of Hà Nội and Phan Võ Như Ý of Khánh Hòa were the runners-up.

Notably, Huyền has returned to competition after two years of absence to give birth.

Earlier, Huyền reaffirmed her spot as a top regional runner when she won gold medal in the women’s 400m in a time of 53.86sec.

“I am very happy to compete again. Through this event I hope to be selected for the SEA Games in the Philippines later this year,” Huyền said.

At the 2015 SEA Games, Huyền won the 400m, 400m hurdles, and 4×400 m relay and set games records in the latter two events. Her results at the event gave her two individual qualifying times for the 2015 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Olympics.

At the 2017 SEA Games, Huyền also bagged gold medals in the 400m, 400m hurdles and 4×400m relay.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Quách Công Lịch of Thanh Hóa seized gold after clocking a time of 50.71sec. However, Lịch couldn't beat his own national record of 50.05sec set two years ago at the SEA Games in Malaysia.

With 51.20sec, Hanoian Phan Khắc Hoàng was second, while Nguyễn Tuấn Vũ of Thanh Hóa finished third with a time of 52.53sec.

In the women’s 800m, Khuất Phương Anh of Hà Nội beat Đinh Thị Bích and Bùi Thị Ngân of Nam Định to take the title. While on the men’s side, Dương Văn Thái of Nam Định took gold medal with a time of 1:51.74.

In the women’s pole jump, Trương Thị Thu of Thanh Hóa won with a result of 3.70m, followed by Nguyễn Phạm Hoài Yên of Đà Nẵng and Phạm Thị Kiều Oanh of Hà Nội.

In the men’s 20,000m walking, Nguyễn Thành Ngưng of Đà Nẵng defeated his teammate Võ Xuân Vĩnh and Phùng Kim Quang of Hà Nội to win gold with a time of 1:36.08.

Ngưng’s best result in this category is 1:23.29 which he set in an event in Japan three years ago.

The annual event, which is a warm-up for Vietnamese athletes to prepare for the SEA Games, will conclude on Thursday. VNS