Vietnamese-Ukrainian athlete to compete at SEA Games

Linda Truong, a Vietnamese-Ukrainian athlete, will be one of two representatives from Vietnam at the 28th SEA Games' rhythmic gymnastics event, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Saturday.

This is the first time in 10 years that Vietnam will send a rhythmic gymnastics team to the SEA Games. Linda, whose Vietnamese name is Truong Mai Nhat Linh, will pair with teammate Tran Thi Thanh Thanh to compete at the group and individual all-around events in Singapore next month.

Born in 1996, Linda has trained for 15 years and taken part in more than 20 international competitions. Her best result was a gold medal in an open tournament in Hungary in 2012, where she also earned three silver medals.

Linda, who can speak fluent Russian, English and Vietnamese, will build her own training plan in Ukraine and fly to Singapore to join the delegation. The rhythmic gymnastics events are to be held on June 14.

The Vietnamese sports delegation has set a target to win 56-65 gold medals at the 28th SEA Games, slated for June 5-16, local newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) on Saturday quoted Tran Duc Phan, Deputy Director of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training and head of the Vietnamese sports delegation to Singapore, as saying.

The delegation consists of 570 members, including 392 athletes and 178 coaches and officials, and will compete in 285 events of 28 sports. The tournament offers competition in a total of 36 sports. Vietnam plans to win most of its gold medals in track and field, with 10 gold medals, and in swimming, with 8 other hopeful gold medals. Endite