Track-and-field athletes to vie for medals at Asian Championship in Bangkok

“We have registered 16 athletes and six coaches to participate at the Thai Asian Championship. The final list will be announced later,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, General Secretary of the Vietnam Athletics Federation.

Among participants are SEA Games champions Nguyen Thi Huyen, Nguyen Thi Hang, Nguyen Thi Oanh and Luong Duc Phuoc.

After the Cambodian SEA Games, Huyen took a gold in the women’s 400m hurdles at the Taiwan Open last week. Hang won in the women’s 400m while Phuoc was a champion in the men’s 1,500m at the same event.

Oanh, who made history with four golds at the Phnom Penh Games, withdrew from the Taiwan event at the last minute. Her coaches wanted Oanh to remain in Vietnam to train for other events including the upcoming continental championship.

The Asian event is expected to see the participation of almost all of the strongest competitors who aim to prepare in the Asian Games in September in China and secure their berths at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It will be the first time that Thailand will host the championships since its inception in 1973 and will be by far the largest athletics event ever organized and held in the country.

“Thailand is honored to be selected by the Asian Athletics Federation (AAA) to host the 25th Asian Athletics Championships,” said Sun Sarutanont, President of the Athletics Association of Thailand.

“It is a privilege for the country to host the event for the first time ever, something made extra special considering this year marks the official 50th anniversary of the AAA, a landmark occasion,” he added.

The championships will be held at the National Stadium in Bangkok and will serve as the qualification stage for athletes hoping to participate at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19- 27.

It will also serve as an important pre-cursor to athletes who are striving to secure national team qualification and participation at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, next year.

It is the first time the Asian Athletics Championships has been held since 2019 after the Covid-19 pandemic forced cancelation of the 2021 event in Hangzhou, China.

In other athletics news, four Vietnamese athletes will join the 20th Asian U20 Championships 2023 that is taking place from June 4-7 in Yecheon, the Republic of Korea.

The tournament is taking place after three years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Among Vietnamese, Nguyen Quoc Thinh will compete in the men’s high jump, Ha Thi Thuy Hang in the women’s long jump, Le Thi Thanh Nga in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase and Bui Thị Kim Anh in the women’s high jump events.

All of them took part in the National Sports Games last December in Hanoi and earned remarkable results.

Thinh took a silver with his personal best of 2.12m. Nga bagged a bronze in her category with a time of 11min 5.01sec. Hang placed seventh in her competition debut with a 5.60m jump. Kim Anh ranked fifth with a result of 1.74m.

Athletes arrive in the RoK on June 2 and will have two days of practice before their competitions.