Impressions of Nguyen Thi Oanh on the Asian race track

Five years ago, Nguyen Thi Oanh participated in the 2018 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships (AIAC) held in Iran and won two bronze medals in the women's 1,500 m and 3,000 m races.

Since then, Oanh and other Vietnamese track and field athletes have not had the opportunity to compete at the AIAC due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with tournaments being postponed or rescheduled.

That is also the reason why Vietnamese athletics is determined to repeat its achievements in the continental arena by sending the four athletes with the best current achievements to the 2023 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, including Nguyen Thi Oanh (3,000 m, 1,500 m), Nguyen Thi Huyen (400 m), Luong Duc Phuoc (men's 1,500 m) and Nguyen Trung Cuong (men's 3,000 m).

Nguyen Thi Oanh (center) received gold medal at AIAC Astana 2023 - Photo: AIAC

Having failed in the women's 3,000m race against strong opponents, Nguyen Thi Oanh focused all her determination on her strong point, the 1,500m race, which featured the participation of 7 top runners from Kazakhstan, Japan, Kuwait, and Kyrgyzstan. Being inferior to her opponents in terms of physique and having to quickly adapt to the indoor track of only 200m each lap with many turns, the athlete from Bac Giang distributed her strength reasonably, following her opponents in the first laps before breaking away in the last 500m. She maintained a high speed to finish first, winning the gold medal with a time of 4 minutes 15 seconds 55, while Yume Goto (Japan) won the silver medal and Akbayyan Nurnamet (Kazakhstan) finished third.

Clip of Nguyen Thi Oanh competing in the women's 1,500m race and the medal ceremony:

Nguyen Thi Oanh competes in the women's 1,500m race - Source: AIAC

Stepping onto the top podium for the first time at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Nguyen Thi Oanh affirmed that she is the number 1 hope of Vietnamese athletics at the 32nd SEA Games taking place in May in Cambodia and the Asian Games in September in China.

Not long after the achievement of her young teammate Nguyen Thi Oanh, "mother of one" Nguyen Thi Huyen excellently won the silver medal in the women's 400m with a time of 54.57 seconds, just behind the host athlete of Kazakhstan Eli Mikhina (54.07 seconds).

In the 1,500m race, Luong Duc Phuoc ranked 9th out of 12 athletes competing. The SEA Games 31 champion's achievement was 3 minutes 55 seconds 21, 12 seconds slower than champion Kazuto Ilzawa.

This is the only official international tour of the Vietnamese athletics team in preparation for the 32nd SEA Games in May.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/the-thao/an-tuong-nguyen-thi-oanh-tren-duong-chay-chau-a-20230212215235339.htm