Nguyen Huy Hoang's Day

The day was relatively uneventful, with most events failing to achieve success in the finals. The hopes of the Vietnamese sports delegation rested entirely on swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang's performance in the men's 400m freestyle final. While this distance has brought Huy Hoang success in Southeast Asian competitions many times, it proved truly challenging for him on the continental stage, facing strong opponents.

Starting in lane 6, Huy Hoang suddenly faltered and gradually dropped to 8th place after the first 50 meters. The SEA Games 32 champion showed no signs of being able to move up, as after the first 300 meters he remained in last place.

Nguyen Huy Hoang receives the bronze medal in the 400m swimming event. (Photo: Bui Luong)

Just like the unexpected upset in the 1,500m freestyle final a few days ago, the swimmer from Quang Binh province only accelerated at this point and moved up to third place after 350m. Huy Hoang maintained this ranking until the finish line with a time of 3 minutes 49 seconds 16, only behind Kim Woo-min (South Korea, 3 minutes 44 seconds 36) and Pan Zhan-le (China, 3 minutes 48 seconds 81).

Although he didn't achieve another Olympic qualifying standard like he did with the 1,500m freestyle (B standard) and 800m freestyle (A standard), the bronze medal in the 400m freestyle capped off another successful Asian Games in Nguyen Huy Hoang's career, following one silver and one bronze medal at the 18th Asian Games five years ago in Indonesia.

Athletics' opening day saw the achievements of the three young athletes, Minh Hạnh, Ánh Thục, and Nhi Yến, proving truly worthwhile at the end of the sixth day of the Games. Hoàng Thị Minh Hạnh finished second in a qualifying heat and, along with Hoàng Thị Ánh Thục, advanced to the 400m final as the third-place finisher with the second-best time.

Making her debut on the continental track, Tran Thi Nhi Yen showed that she deserves to be the hope of Vietnamese athletics, in the most exciting event of the queen of sports. Nhi Yen finished third in the first 100m qualifying heat and held her breath waiting for the end of the qualifying heats to know if she would advance to the final. The girl from Long An province advanced to the final thanks to having the best time among the three third-place finishers in the three heats, inadvertently eliminating Filipino star Christina Marie Knotte, who was once a formidable opponent of her senior teammate Le Tu Chinh at the SEA Games.

With no more medals awarded for shooting, gymnastics, or even esports on a day when many sports concluded their competitions at ASIAD 19 in silence, Vietnamese sports felt the pressure from the continental arena and the performance targets, and could only encourage each other to strive harder in the coming days.