Don't back down in the face of difficulty

Athlete Le Van Cong endured the pain to bring home the first medal for Vietnam at the 4th Asian Para Games. Photo: THAI DUONG

For disabled athletes , maintaining their form is always more difficult than for normal athletes. Therefore, training, maintaining stability and improving performance from month to month and year to year is truly extraordinary. Not to mention that there are athletes who get injured during training, maintaining good physical condition to compete is also extremely difficult. The story of Le Van Cong at the 4th Asian Para Games is such a case. Although he was the top hope in competing for a gold medal, unfortunately for Le Van Cong, he suffered a shoulder injury during the preparation for the Games, which greatly affected the ability of the athlete from Ha Tinh to compete for a gold medal. Since coming to Hangzhou, Le Van Cong has been almost unable to train due to the injury, before competing, the 39-year-old athlete had to take painkillers.

Suppressing the pain to not give up, Le Van Cong showed his extraordinary determination, and it was even more amazing when this athlete won himself a precious medal. Although he failed to lift 170 kg in the first attempt, Le Van Cong did not give up his goal. He continued to suppress the pain and put all his strength into lifting 171 kg and 173 kg in the next two attempts, thereby winning a bronze medal. Although he did not win the highest medal, it was a great effort by Le Van Cong. The 173 kg achievement is only 3 kg less than the weight that helped Cong become the world champion, and is even much better than when he won the gold medal (169 kg) at the 12th Asian Para Games. “Before the competition, I didn’t know if I could lift the weight. I thought about the possibility of having to give up, but then accepted the pain to compete. A medal at this time is not only meaningful to me but also important to the overall achievement of the Vietnamese team, so I have to try as long as I can,” Le Van Cong shared.

Like his teammate Le Van Cong, athlete Nguyen Binh An did not give up his goal, did not back down in the face of difficulties to win the bronze medal in the 54 kg weight class. Although he is the defending champion in this weight class, Binh An faced great competition from his opponents, including David Degtyarev (Kazakhstan) - the defending Paralympic champion and Yang Jinglang (China) - who won the world silver medal in 2021. In his first lift, Binh An only succeeded at 174 kg, while David Degtyarev and Yang Jinglang conquered 179 kg and 178 kg respectively. Not discouraged by the gap created by his opponents, Binh An narrowed the gap to 3 kg and 2 kg with the above two opponents in his second lift when he succeeded at 180 kg. In his final lift, the athlete from Tra Vinh excellently conquered 184 kg, breaking the Games record. However, David Degtyarev also excelled in breaking the Asian record with a result of 186 kg and won the gold medal, while Yang Jinglang won the silver medal with 185 kg. “I tried very hard to conquer a weight higher than I thought, but my opponents competed better so I had to accept the bronze medal. This is the best achievement of my career. Before the competition, I did not dare to think that I would achieve this result,” Binh An shared after setting the best achievement of his career.

Although he could not successfully defend his gold medal, Binh An defeated himself by achieving the highest weight of his career, breaking the Asian Para Games record with 184 kg (the old record was 179 kg). Previously, Binh An won the Asian Para Games gold medal in 2018 with 178 kg, at the recent world championship he only achieved the best parameter of 173 kg. So it can be seen that the parameter of 184 kg at the 4th Asian Para Games is truly an achievement of the 38-year-old athlete. It is the result of the spirit and will of Vietnam, not retreating in the face of difficulties, not giving up no matter how strong the opponent is. The above achievement will be a great motivation for Binh An to aim for the most important goal next year, the Paralympics in Paris.

VINH HY

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