"The goal of Vietnam's sports delegation to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is to integrate into the Olympic movement, while striving to gain best results to confirm our sports status in the world's biggest sports arena," the president of the Vietnam Olympic Committee told Xinhua recently.

To prepare for Vietnam's participation in the games, hundreds of the country's ace athletes have been trained intensively in foreign countries, including China, said the committee's president Nguyen Danh Thai, who is also Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Twenty-two Vietnamese athletes will compete in the athletics, swimming, gymnastics, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting, table tennis, badminton and wushu at the Olympics.

The 59-strong Vietnamese sports delegation also includes trainers, referees and officials, he said.

"A high-ranking delegation led by Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet will attend the opening ceremony and other activities of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," Thai said.

Vietnam annually sends national sports teams to China for intensive training and friendlies, while China sends experts, trainers and athletes to Vietnam, helping improve the performance of Vietnamese athletes. "This is one of cooperative programs which are effective and useful to Vietnam's preparations for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," Thai said.

On April 29, the Olympic torch relay in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City, the last leg of the Olympic flame's global journey outside China, was successfully and safely held, he added.

Vietnam is pinning its medal hope on taekwondo and weightlifting at the Beijing Olympic Games, Hoang Vinh Giang, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Olympic Committee, said recently.

Giang expected three taekwondo athletes, Hoang Ha Giang, Nguyen Van Hung and Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, who have won automatic berths to the Games, to bag home bronze medals. Weightlifters Hoang Anh Tuan and Nguyen Thi Thiet also have chances for medals.

Vietnam firstly attended the Olympic Games in 1980, and grabbed its first-ever Olympic medal in 2000 with the merit of female taekwondo athlete Tran Hieu Ngan in the 57kg category.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2008)