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Vietnam eyes wushu golds at SEA Games

Xinhua, May 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnam's veteran wushu athletes are expected to win golds at the upcoming SEA Games in Singapore, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Tuesday.

Senior athletes such as Asian Games winner Duong Thuy Vy and SEA Games defending champions Pham Quoc Khanh and Hoang Thi Phuong Giang are set to win titles at the taolu (performance) event.

Singapore has decided to remove several categories, including Vietnam's strong points: women's and men's shansou (combat). So, Nguyen Thi Chinh and Nguyen Thu Hoai will get no chance to defend their titles in the women's 48kg and 52kg categories, respectively.

Vy is expected to win in jianshu (sword) and qiangshu (spear) events, which had brought her to triumph podium last year at the Asian Games in South Korea.

Giang plans to defend her title in the changquan (long fist) event, while Khanh, who will be playing his fourth SEA Games, wants to take another title in men's nangun (Southern staff) event, as he did two years ago.

Apart from practicing at home, Vy and the taolu team were sent to China for training. They returned home on Sunday. "Training and competing with the highly qualified athletes of China have helped us improve skills and techniques," said Nguyen Minh Ha, head of the Wushu Department of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training.

Ha said Vietnam is among the region' s top three wushu masters, but Malaysia and Indonesia have strongly developed wushu by training their youths abroad.

Apart from 12 taolu athletes, Vietnam will also send two wushu fighters to compete at the SEA Games. Hoang Van Cao, who won a bronze at the precious Games, hopes to change the color of the medal in men's 60kg, while Nguyen Van Tai is expected to make a bang in men's 65kg pool.

At the 27th SEA Games, Vietnam' s wushu athletes gained five golds, three silvers, and four bronzes to rank second in the sports, behind hosts Myanmar.

At the 28th SEA Games, Vietnam targets 60-70 golds at 18 sport events, with the biggest hope pinned on athletics and swimming. The country bagged home 74 golds, 85 silvers and 86 bronzes, finishing third at the previous tournament. Endi