by Thanh Nga

Việt Nam’s No 1 long jumper Bùi Thị Thu Thảo has had an exciting New Year.

And in early February she won a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Tehran, Iran.

“I started the New Year on a lucky note. I hope I will play well the whole year,” Thảo told Viet Nam News.

Thảo, 25, showed outstanding performance last year. She was honoured as the Female Athlete of the Year at the Victory Cup, the sports Oscar in Việt Nam, held in Hà Nội in January. The award is the biggest national prize for athletes and coaches who compete in tournaments and bring home laurels.

Last year, Thảo won a gold medal at the Asian championship, two others at the Asian Grand Prix and one title at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Malaysia, which saw her best result of 6.68m.

At the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games held in Turkmenistan last September, Thảo claimed a silver, with a long jump of 6.36m.

She closed the year with the No 1 position in Asia and as World No 25 recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federation. This is the first time a Vietnamese track-and-field athlete has achieved this result.

Thảo said she was looking forward to the 18th Asian Games (ASIAD), a pan-Asian multi-sport event scheduled to be held in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2.

 “I will try to train hard to beat my record of 6.68m and take home a gold medal in Indonesia,” Thảo says.

“Thảo has a very good psychology. She always competes with all her heart. She is not afraid of facing strong rivals. She is expected to bring home a gold medal in the coming ASIAD,” former head coach of the national athletics team, Nguyễn Trọng Hổ, told Viet Nam News.

No pain, no gain

The road to victory was not an easy one for Thảo. She had to go through a difficult time when her results were unsatisfactory, and she suffered injuries.

Thảo was born in a poor family in the northern mountainous district of Ba Vì. As a kid, she used to help her parents bind bricks and grow rice.

When she was 14, Hổ saw Thảo’s performance at a provincial sport tournament and selected her in the athletics team of Hà Tây Province (now belongs to Hà Nội).

“Thảo has special qualities for an athlete in terms of deftness, rebound, strength and speed, so I chose her,” says Hổ, who is now head of the Elite Sports Department of the National Sports Administration.

After choosing Thảo for the provincial athletics team, Hổ left Việt Nam for China to undergo training, while Thảo was trained by Hổ’s assistants at home.

At first, Thảo was trained in the long-distance running category. But a few days later, she left the training centre to go home as she felt homesick and did not respond well to endurance running.

After spending several days at home, Thảo went to Hà Nội to work at construction sites to earn money for her family.

A month later, however, her father forced her to start training for sports again as coach Hổ visited Thảo’s home to persuade her parents.

“I trained again, thanks to my father and coach Hổ. Being an athlete, I had enough money to be fed and clothed and it also reduced my parents’ worry, so I agreed to train again,” says Thảo.

Hổ told Thảo that she needed to overcome herself. He told her she could not improve if she stayed at home. He encouraged her to take charge of herself so that she could take care of her family.

Since then, Thảo has made every effort to practise hard. She has gained medals at the national junior championships and ranked fifth at SEA Games in 2011 in Indonesia with 6.11m. She did not compete in any tournament in 2012 because of injury.

“Injury has followed me since I began training 12 years ago. In 2012, I had back injury and had to stop competing. At that time, I intended to retire from competition,” says Thảo.

But Hổ encouraged her to never give up. She continues treatment with acupuncture to recover from injury and puts up a strong fight in international tournaments.

Achievements

Not betraying Hổ’s feeling, Thảo triumphed at the National Athletics Championship in 2013 and earned a ticket to compete in the SEA Games held in Myanmar, in which she earned a bronze medal with a leap of 6.14m.