SEA Games 33: Vietnam wins another Gold Medal

By 3 PM on December 11th, more good news arrived for the Vietnamese Sports Delegation as athletes won two more gold medals in karate and MMA. However, since MMA was included in the SEA Games for the first time, the results did not count towards the overall medal standings.

Vietnamese Karate has won its first gold medal.

In the women's team kata final, the trio of Nguyen Thi Phuong, Nguyen Ngoc Tram, and Hoang Thi Thu Uyen brilliantly defeated the host team Thailand to bring home the first gold medal for Vietnamese karate at the 33rd SEA Games.

"Kata Queen" Nguyen Thi Phuong and her teammates chose the Tomari Bassai kata, a 5-minute kata considered difficult and demanding of high precision. With perfect technique, excellent composure, and perfect coordination in every movement, the Vietnamese women's kata team convinced the judges and won a complete victory.

The performance by the Vietnamese women's team.

In the MMA category, fighter Quang Van Minh won the gold medal in the men's 65kg class after a dominant performance and a convincing victory over his Malaysian opponent Tan Yee Siang in the final. This achievement earned Van Minh a bonus of 200 million VND from the Vietnam MMA Federation.

However, MMA at this Games was purely for demonstration purposes, so Van Minh's Gold Medal was not counted towards the overall medal tally, similar to the Silver Medal won by Duong Thi Thanh Binh earlier.

In other sports, Vietnam's number one female badminton player, Nguyen Thuy Linh, played her opening match against Armatya Pratiwi (Indonesia). Although she won the first set 21-16, Thuy Linh could not maintain her advantage and lost the next two sets 20-22 and 14-21, thus ending her participation in the SEA Games 33.

Earlier, the Vietnamese women's badminton team also lost to Malaysia 1-3 in the team event. Thuy Linh shared that she wasn't too surprised by the result, as this tournament brought together many top players from around the world and she wasn't a seeded player.

The Vietnamese women's volleyball team had a successful day of competition. (Photo: MINH HOANG)

In the women's volleyball group stage, the Vietnamese team secured a convincing 3-0 victory against Malaysia. Coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet's players demonstrated superior strength, closing out the first set 25-8 in just 16 minutes. They maintained their dominance in the next two sets, winning 25-5 and 25-3. After three sets, Malaysia only managed to score a total of 16 points.

Also on the afternoon of December 11th, the men's 3x3 basketball team failed to advance from the group stage after losing to Malaysia 12-21. Prior to that, they had lost to the Philippines and only managed a victory against Laos. The hopes of Vietnamese 3x3 basketball now rest on the women's team, with their semi-final match against Indonesia this afternoon (December 11th).

QUANG MINH

Source: https://nhandan.vn/sea-games-33-viet-nam-co-them-huy-chuong-vang-post929547.html