Although life is full of "birth, aging, sickness and death", the passing of former table tennis player Le Van Tiet left a sense of loss and regret for generations of Vietnamese table tennis players, especially his students and fans of this sport .
Former football star Le Van Tiet passed away at the age of 86, leaving behind regrets for fans.
PHOTO: MINH TAN
Former famous player Le Van Tiet
Mr. Le Van Tiet was born in 1939 in Ho Chi Minh City, started playing table tennis at the age of 8 and quickly made a name for himself in the world arena. When Vietnamese sports first participated in the ASIAD in 1958, tennis player Le Van Tiet and his teammates caused a stir when they won 2 gold medals (team and men's doubles).
In 1959, Mr. Le Van Tiet also won the bronze medal at the International Table Tennis Championship in Dortmund (Germany). Also in 1959, he won the men's singles championship at the French Open (the most famous tournament in the world at that time) when he defeated the number 1 player at that time, Teruo Murakami (Japanese champion) in the final match. In addition to the two memorable championships above, he and his teammates also won three gold medals at the SEAP Games (the predecessor of the SEA Games) in 1961, 1965 and 1967.
Former table tennis star Le Van Tiet (left) became famous in the world when he defeated the number 1 Japanese player and won the gold medal at the French Open in 1959, when he was only 20 years old.
PHOTO: DOCUMENT
Former coach of the Vietnamese table tennis team Nguyen Vinh Hien shared: "In my opinion, in the past 70 years, there have been two legends in table tennis, the one nicknamed "the great wall" Mai Van Hoa and the "wonder of table tennis in the world" Le Van Tiet. Mr. Le Van Tiet had a beautiful attacking style on both the left and right sides, especially counter-attacks far from the table with smooth steps like "ling ba wei bo". This was a modern style of play at that time that made many talents in the world admire and gave him the nickname "wonder of table tennis in the world" of that decade. In my opinion, Mr. Tiet also deserves to be called a Vietnamese table tennis prodigy in the past 70 years because he made many miracles, especially defeating the world champion at the age of 19".
After retiring from his career, Mr. Le Van Tiet still did not leave table tennis when he successively coached the Tan Binh team and then the Ho Chi Minh City Police team. His students won high prizes in the country such as players Ly Minh Triet, Ly Minh Tan, Le Ngoc Phuong Lan... During the time after that, Mr. Le Van Tiet still diligently went to clubs to convey what he had, in order to help Vietnamese table tennis regain its reputation after a period of falling behind other countries in the region.
In his most recent conversation with Thanh Nien , former player Le Van Tiet confided: "Now, you guys have much better training and competition conditions than we did. But after the glorious days, Vietnamese table tennis has stagnated for too long. Regaining those achievements is very difficult, but we cannot give up. I just hope that the leaders of the sports industry will pay attention, invest well and have dedicated coaches so that our country's table tennis can return to its golden age. The important thing is that you guys should be confident and have different "weapons" to surprise your opponents."
Farewell to former table tennis player Le Van Tiet. Hopefully his wish for Vietnamese table tennis to soon return to its golden age will come true.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cuu-danh-thu-le-van-tiet-ky-quan-bong-ban-the-gioi-qua-doi-tuoi-86-185250602164847473.htm
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