Nguyen Huu Kim Son has earned a slot to compete at the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Argentina. (Photo: vietbao.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam aims to earn 10 slots to compete in theBuenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games, to be held onOctober 6-18 in Argentina.
According to Hoang Quoc Vinh, head of the Elite SportsDepartment, Vietnam now has three official ticketsto Argentina. The ticket holders include 18-year-old Do Hong Ngoc, who wona silver medal in the world junior boxing championship; 16-year-old Nguyen HuuKim Son, who won 14 gold medals to help Vietnam top the medal tally at theSoutheast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Brunei, and ato-be-determined women’s weightlifter.
At the world junior weightlifting championship last year, Vietnam’s female teamranked 15th and so were awarded one slot to compete in the Youth Olympic thisyear. The leaders of the weightlifting section will carefully choose a playerto compete in the women’s 48kg category.
The other ticket hopefuls are martial artists Ho Thi Kim Ngan, Nguyen Anh Nguyetand Nguyen Thanh Truong.
The 16-year-old Ngan of An Giang won gold medals in the ASEAN junior taekwondochampionship 2017, the Republic of Korea taekwondo open, and a goldmedal in the world junior event in 2016. The 1.8m tall girl is ranked sixth inthe world, behind athletesfrom Cuba, Iran, England, Japan and France.
Karate martial artist Nguyet of Hanoi is world junior No 10 in the women’s 53kg and Truong of HCM City is world junior No 12 in the men’s 68 kg.
“Nguyet and Truong will take part in the Asian junior taekwondo championshipin Japan in May, the qualifying round for the world junior event inJune in Bulgaria to qualify to Argentina,” said coach Pham HongHa.
Additionally, 18-year-old judoka Le Anh Tai, world junior No 7, is alsoexpected to earn enough points to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games.
Other athletes could win bids to the Buenos Aires games in archery,fencing, athletics, wrestling and badminton.
Vietnam won a total of two golds, two silvers and two bronzes at Youth OlympicGames in 2010 and 2014.
At the Games in 2010, weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan won a gold medal in the men’s56kg. In taekwondo, Nguyen Thanh Thao bagged a silver medal in the women’s 55kgand Nguyen Quoc Cuong took a bronze in the men’s side.
At the Games in 2014, swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien brought home a gold medal inthe women’s 200m medley.
The Buenos Aires 2018 event is the third edition of the Summer Youth Olympics,a major international sports event in which culture and education are also ofgreat importance. It is the first Youth Games for either summer or winter to beheld outside Eurasia.-VNA
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