Nguyen Thi Oanh enters the 'hall of legends' of the SEA Games.

With the gold medal she just won in athletics on the evening of December 16th, Nguyen Thi Oanh officially became a legend of the SEA Games.

Nguyen Thi Oanh with her historic 15th gold medal at the SEA Games - Photo: NAM TRAN

Nguyen Thi Oanh's event this time was the 3,000m steeplechase. There were no surprises, as she left all her competitors far behind to finish first with a time of 10 minutes and 13.74 seconds.

Even after crossing the finish line, Nguyen Thi Oanh had to wait quite a while to celebrate with Doan Thu Hang, the runner-up with a time of 10 minutes 50.30 seconds.

This is Nguyen Thi Oanh's third gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games. Previously, she also won overwhelmingly in the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

Notably, this is also Oanh's 15th SEA Games gold medal in her career. This helps her make history as one of the three athletes with the most gold medals in athletics at the Southeast Asian Games.

Nguyen Thi Oanh was almost the only runner in the distance where she had no competition.

The two people who had previously achieved this feat were former Myanmar athlete Jennifer Lin Tay. Born in 1949, she competed in the SEAP Games and the SEA Games from 1965 to 1983. She won 9 gold medals in shot put and 6 gold medals in discus throw.

The second is former Filipino athlete Elma Muros, born in 1967, who competed in the SEA Games from 1983 to 2001. She is a versatile athlete, possessing 8 gold medals in long jump, along with others in the 100m, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, and heptathlon events.

Meanwhile, all of Nguyen Thi Oanh's gold medals came in the following events: 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, and 3,000m steeplechase. Notably, at this SEA Games, Nguyen Thi Oanh did not participate in her specialty event, the 1,500m race.

If she had competed, she could have won her 16th gold medal and broken the previous record held by two legends, Elma Muros and Jennifer Lin Tay. Regarding this, Oanh said: "This year, due to the coaching staff's calculations, I only competed in 3 events. As for whether I will continue to participate in the SEA Games in two years to break the record, that will depend on the situation; I haven't thought about it yet."

The 3,000m steeplechase has been Nguyen Thi Oanh's dominant event since the 2019 SEA Games.

To date, she has won a total of four gold medals in this event.

Nguyen Thi Oanh has left her competitors far behind.

The radiant smile of the person who made history at the SEA Games.

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DUC KHUE - NAM TRAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguyen-thi-oanh-dat-chan-vao-ngoi-den-huyen-thoai-cua-sea-games-20251216182353249.htm