Keep the momentum from the starting line
In 2024, the Vietnamese table tennis team will participate in the 2024 Southeast Asian Youth Championship in the U15 and U19 age groups and win 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 4 bronze medals. The 3 gold medals of the Vietnamese team are in the U15 men's doubles (Do Manh Luong, Dinh Nhat Nam), U19 men's doubles (Tran Manh Cuong, Nguyen Hoang Lam), and U19 men's singles (Nguyen Duy Phong).
According to experts, Do Manh Luong, Nguyen Hoang Lam, Nguyen Duy Phong are young male faces with great potential for development in the future. The fact that Vietnamese tennis players reached 6 finals at the tournament also shows their great potential at the starting line compared to players of the same age.
If we add more, we can take the achievements of young Vietnamese players at the US Open table tennis tournament at the end of 2024 as an example. At that tournament, two sisters Do Le Van Chi and Do Le Van Linh excellently won 1 gold medal in the U17 women's doubles event, 1 silver medal in the U15 women's doubles event... That is also considered the highlight of Vietnamese youth table tennis in 2024 when the US Open attracted nearly 1,500 players from 19 countries, regions and territories.
This shows that young Vietnamese players have the potential to go far. However, as table tennis experts have mentioned many times, there still needs to be continuous investment so that young players can shoulder national responsibilities in the future. Otherwise, they will be left in a state of "reluctance". Lessons from Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand have shown this. Young players from these countries are only at the same level, even inferior to many Vietnamese players in Southeast Asian youth tournaments.
However, the level of these players has been improved over the years thanks to continuous tours and training abroad. Singaporean table tennis used to rely on naturalized Chinese players, but recently there has been a group of male athletes trained in the Singaporean table tennis environment. These players are now firmly in the race for the SEA Games championship and reaching the Asian level thanks to regular international competitions. Malaysian table tennis is similar when it possesses a group of talented young male athletes who can shoulder national duties, especially at the SEA Games. Meanwhile, Vietnamese table tennis used to dominate Malaysia in the men's team event, but now it is at a disadvantage due to the lack of uniformity in strength.
In fact, Vietnamese table tennis managers also understand the importance of increasing international tournament participation for athletes. The 7th term of the Table Tennis Federation (2024-2028) also aims to increase investment in young athletes with high potential for high performance through long-term rotational training solutions abroad with 3 men and 3 women (training locations can be in China, Japan or Korea); increase participation in international tournaments, the team and the youth team are allowed to participate in official tournaments of Southeast Asia, Asia, the world and ITTF Protour every year.
How to implement the solution?
In a recent exchange, a representative of the table tennis department (Vietnam Sports Administration) emphasized that the budget allocated to the department will be used for training and international competitions of the teams. The department will also coordinate with the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation and localities to send athletes, especially young athletes, to compete internationally continuously. This is a common trend, and many athletes have developed remarkably thanks to this approach.
The story now lies in mobilizing funding for implementation. This depends largely on localities, the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation in calling for socialization as well as the athletes' families. In fact, over the past year, this has shown positive signs. In particular, the Vietnamese table tennis team with many young players participated in the 2024 US Open with socialized funding from the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation and the athletes' families. Also in this year, a number of young Vietnamese players were also able to participate in youth tournaments in the world professional table tennis competition system with socialized funding from the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation.
Recently, information from the table tennis department ( Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center) also said that some parents and relatives of young athletes at the club also expressed their willingness to cooperate and pay for their children and grandchildren to go for long-term training and competition in China for about 3 years. According to estimates from insiders, this budget is also about 1 billion VND/year, enough to show the level of "willingness to spend" of the athletes' families. This is also the way that managers have long wanted because the budget of the managing unit or from the call of the Vietnam Table Tennis Federation is not really stable enough to calculate the long-term investment for athletes.
Among localities and sectors, Hanoi used to have abundant financial resources to send athletes, including table tennis players, to train abroad and achieved many resounding successes, but up to now, this has not been maintained, causing the level of the players to decline. Now, with stronger cooperation from the athletes' families, it is possible to create a breakthrough in the achievements of young athletes.
The more investment sources for young athletes, the more opportunities Vietnamese table tennis has to develop, to at least be in the top group in Southeast Asia. Finding investment sources is not too difficult at this point. The most important thing is that the responsible person always ensures transparency to build trust with sponsors and athletes' families.
16 U15 and U19 players will participate in the 2025 Southeast Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship
The 2025 Southeast Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship will take place from April 17 to 22 in Jakarta (Indonesia). Vietnam's youth table tennis team will send 16 athletes and 5 coaches to compete in 2 age groups U15 and U19. The table tennis department (Vietnam Sports Administration) said that the professional department has developed a plan and training program for 16 national youth players from next April. In 2024, Vietnam will also have 16 players participating in the Southeast Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship.
Minh Khue
Source: https://cand.com.vn/the-thao/chuyen-duong-dai-cua-bong-ban-viet-nam--i761000/
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