Nguyen Thi Huyen and her teammates find new limits after the Asian gold medal
"Before entering the tournament, we set a goal of getting a medal but we didn't know what color it would be," coach Vu Ngoc Loi told MetaSports after returning from Thailand to Vietnam. "The performance of the running team is commensurate with the results when practicing".
The running team including Nguyen Thi Ngoc, Hoang Thi Minh Hanh, Nguyen Thi Huyen and Nguyen Thi Hang won with a time of 3 minutes 32 seconds 36 – 69% better than when winning the 32nd SEA Games gold medal and far from the national record. 90% seconds.
Coach Vu Ngoc Loi said the team had returned to focus after the victory, determining that this was just a premise towards the 19 Asian Games in China. In AAC 2023, strong teams like Bahrain, China and even India have not sent the best players to participate, so Vietnam should not be subjective. The immediate goal is to protect the bronze medal won five years ago. At that time, the running team consisting of Nguyen Thi Oanh, Nguyen Thi Hang, Hoang Thi Ngoc and Quach Thi Lan reached a time of 3 minutes 33 seconds 23.
Asked about Vietnam's launch of the four best athletes to compete at AAC 2023, leading to the possibility of revealing tactics to opponents, Mr. Loi smiled and affirmed that he did not feel worried. The 63-year-old coach believes that the recent achievements are not limited and the four girls have not reached their best performance.
"Ngoc has a slight pain and is not in the best condition, and Huyen is not the most comfortable because her family is sick," Coach Loi said. Huyen is the most experienced, Hang is at maturity, while Ngoc and Hanh are young, so they can be more explosive.
In addition, he also hopes that the athletics team will have more doctors to follow, to ensure the recovery process for the athletes.
It is expected that in August, the Vietnamese athletics team, including the women's 4x400m team, will train in China towards the ASIAD. The team had specific target parameters, but the members kept it a secret for tactical reasons.
Coach Vu Ngoc Loi, born in 1960, graduated from Kiev University of Physical Education and Sports in the former Soviet Union, now in Ukraine. After that, he returned to the country to train many generations of Vietnamese athletes, especially in short medium distances like 400m. Most recently, he mentored and elevated Nguyen Thi Huyen, brothers Quach Thi Lan and Quach Cong Lich into the most successful group of Vietnamese athletics.
