Archery prepares for Asian Games 19: Striving for long-term goals

Vietnamese archery prepares for the main destination this year, the 19th Asian Games. Photo: QUY LUONG

However, the road is not paved with roses. To achieve goals, archers must persevere, overcome difficulties and surpass themselves. First of all, at the largest sports event in Asia (Asian Games 19), held in September in Hangzhou (China).

Accompanying leading experts

The first time Vietnamese Archery participated in the Asian Games was the 2010 Games. At the most recent Games in 2018, Vietnamese Archery competed with 12 athletes and the goal was to shorten the gap compared to the continental arena. The total number of athletes competing at this Games was 259 athletes from 29 countries and territories. The overall ranking at the 2018 Games showed that Korea ranked first with 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals, 1 bronze medal; second was Taiwan (China) with 2 gold medals, 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal; third was China (1 gold medal, 2 bronze medals). Among Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia ranked 8th. That shows that the position of Vietnamese Archery is still modest compared to the continental arena and therefore at this Games, our goal is to strive for medals. It sounds simple, but achieving this goal is not easy.

To help Vietnamese archery approach the advanced techniques of the leading country in the continent and the world , South Korea, Mr. Phan Trong Quan, in charge of Archery, Department of Sports and Physical Training, said that the team has been accompanied by Korean expert Park Chae Soon. Coming from the country that led Archery at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with 4 gold medals and led at the 2018 Asian Games, Mr. Park Chae Soon is striving with the team to win medals at the largest sports event in the continent this year.

Mr. Park Chae Soon is the second Korean expert to have a relationship with the Vietnamese Archery team. Previously, the first Korean coach, Mr. Kim Sun Bin, led the Vietnamese Archery team and helped the team win the Asian Silver Medal as well as the SEA Games Gold Medal. Mr. Park Chae Soon, 57 years old, has a long career, most notably leading the Korean team to the London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. During the period from 2011 to 2021, as the coach of the Korean Archery team, he and the coaching staff helped the Korean team win 11 gold medals, 2 bronze medals and continued to affirm that Korea is the number 1 country in the world in archery.

He has been with Vietnam Archery since January 1, 2023 and is accompanying the team for the goal of the Asian Games and the Olympics. “After finishing my term as head coach in Korea, I want to test my strength and ability in another environment and I have chosen Vietnam as the next destination in my career. When I came to Vietnam, I felt that there was indeed a difference between Korean and Vietnamese athletes. However, I also realized that Vietnamese athletes also have a very good and stable technical foundation and, most of all, they practice very hard. So they can completely improve their abilities and I also want to try to have at least 2 places to attend the Olympics next year for 1 male and 1 female,” the Korean expert shared.

Participated in 4 major tournaments

This year, Mr. Park Chae Soon and the Vietnamese Archery team will participate in 4 international Archery tournaments including: Asian Cup in Singapore in June, World Championship in Berlin (Germany), Asian Games in China in late September, early October and in November is the Asian Championship in Thailand.

“At the 19th Asian Games, Vietnamese Archery will compete in 10/10 events (5 events in the 3-string bow event and 5 events in the 1-string bow event). With the attention of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Department of Physical Training and Sports, since the beginning of the year, 20 athletes of the team have trained at the National Sports Training Center in Hanoi . The team also participated in the Asian Archery Cup in Singapore and is currently training in Quang Ninh. The team will soon participate in the World Archery Championship and then prepare to compete at the Games. The Games are expected to have the participation of athletes from 40 countries and territories in the region, including the strongest countries in the world such as Korea or countries in the top 9 Olympic teams such as Taiwan (China), Japan or the country ranked 5th in the previous Games, India... so Vietnamese archery will certainly face many difficulties", Mr. Phan Trong Quan assessed.

“Hot girl” of the Vietnamese archery team Do Thi Anh Nguyet, one of the first two Vietnamese archery athletes to win an official ticket to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, said that at the recent Asian Cup, although Korea did not send the strongest force, China and India sent strong forces, so Vietnamese archers could not win medals. “At the upcoming Asian Games, we will certainly face many difficulties because most of our opponents are in the top of the world. The level of Vietnamese archery is still modest, but we always strive to surpass ourselves and compete for the best results,” Anh Nguyet shared.

Despite facing strong opponents, Vietnamese archers practice in less-than-ideal conditions than many other countries due to relatively expensive archery equipment and related to weapon management regulations, but with spirit and will, they all want to bring home sparkling medals. And hopefully with the presence of the military leader who helped Korea maintain the world's No. 1 position at the 2020 Olympics, the goal of Vietnamese archery will come true, first of all at the upcoming Asian Games.

THU SAM

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