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(Sports) Vietnam targets 10 gymnastics golds at SEA Games

Xinhua, May 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ten Vietnamese gymnastics athletes are poised to win at least 10 golds at the 28th SEA Games to be held in Singapore next month, targeting to win at least 10 gold medals, with the biggest hope pinned on top female gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh, the online version of local newspaper People reported Friday.

Phan Thi Ha Thanh has recently brought home the balance beam gold at the 2015 Varna World Challenge Cup in Bulgaria - her second World Cup title since the beginning of this year. In March, she secured one gold in the same category at the eighth FIG Artistic Gymnastics Challenge Cup in Qatar, where she also won one bronze on vault.

According to experts, it will be relatively possible for Ha Thanh to walk away with five of six golds in her registered events. Except for the women's team events, she has been highly appreciated in the all-around, vault, balance beam, uneven bars and freestyle categories.

As for Ha Thanh, the 28th SEA Games are now just a rehearsal for her bigger objectives in the near future, including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The 24-year-old star is looking towards realizing her biggest goal of winning a 2016 Olympic medal before moving on to a career in training.

Ha Thanh will be accompanied by many other promising athletes of the national team, most notably young male athlete Dinh Phuong Thanh, who won one bronze at last year's Asian Games in South Korea. With his strength in the men's pommel horse, horizontal bar and parallel bars, Phuong Thanh is said to have the capacity to replace elder Pham Phuoc Hung and approach international level if he remains among the athletes under key investment from the sporting sector.

Furthermore, Le Thanh Tung and Dang Nam are gradually filling the vacancy left by Nguyen Thanh Ha in the men's vault event. At the recent World Cup in Bulgaria, Thanh Tung performed outstandingly to take bronze in the vault category, in which Dang Nam ended up in fourth place. The men's team is also determined to claim the team gold medal at the 28th SEA Games.

Vietnam will send nearly 500 athletes to compete at 28 of 36 events at the 28th SEA Games, targeting 60-70 golds, the Voice of Vietnam reported. Endi