Tran Thi Nhi Yen is in the Top 8 fastest female 100m runners in Asia.

A year ago, she was still an extremely unfamiliar name, very few people knew her, but Tran Thi Nhi Yen quickly shone in her own impressive way when she continuously created highlights on the women's 100m race.

If the question "What does it take to get into the ranks of top runners" was asked of Nhi Yen, this 18-year-old girl would probably only be able to smile and give her own performance statistics to explain.

In the first semi-final of the women's 100m race at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships on the afternoon of July 14, Tran Thi Nhi Yen competed in lane 5 - reserved for runners who achieved good results in the qualifying round - and she ran strongly to finish third with a time of 11.55 seconds, advancing to the final of the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships.

The girl from Long An has made rapid progress

Facing extremely strong opponents such as Veronica Shanti (Singapore), Ge Man-qi (China), Fasihi Farzaneh (Iran) or Kristina Maria Knott (Philippines), Nhi Yen finished last in 8/8 position with a time of 11 seconds 64. This result did not make the young runner from Long An sad because in her first time participating in the Asian arena, the ranking she achieved completely exceeded the expectations of both Nhi Yen and coach Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong. After continuously improving her stats from 11 seconds 75 (2022 National Sports Festival gold medal and 32nd SEA Games bronze medal), 11 seconds 68 (2023 Ho Chi Minh City Open Athletics Championship gold medal), 11 seconds 57 in the qualifying round and then 11 seconds 55 in the semi-finals of the Asian Championship, Tran Thi Nhi Yen is considered to have "locked" an average performance of around 11 seconds 60 with a position in the Top 8 of the continent. At the age of 18, she still has a whole future ahead of her to follow in the footsteps of her seniors Vu Thi Huong or Le Tu Chinh on the speed track.

Nguyen Thi Oanh ranked 6th in the 3,000m steeplechase event .

Another day of disappointing results for Vietnamese athletics, with no more medals. After finishing 5th in her strong point of 1,500m, Nguyen Thi Oanh continued to compete in the 3,000m steeplechase on the afternoon of July 14. Competing with top runners such as Parul Chaudhary (India), Xu Shuang-shuang (China) and Reimi Yoshimura (Japan), Nguyen Thi Oanh could only finish the distance in 6th place with a time of 10 minutes 09 seconds 62. This figure is far behind both the national record (9 minutes 43 seconds 83) and the SEA Games record (9 minutes 52 seconds 06) held by Oanh herself.

Ngan Ngoc Nghia only entered the men's 100m semi-finals

Ngan Ngoc Nghia ranked 7/8 in the third men's 100m semi-final with a time of 10.53 seconds, failing to make it to the final; Bui Thi Thu Thao ranked 8/8 in the women's long jump final with a time of 6.22m; Nguyen Trung Cuong even failed to complete his forte, the men's 3,000m steeplechase... All of this shows that this continental competition is really tough for average athletics. After three days of competition, Vietnamese athletics only won 1 bronze medal from Nguyen Thi Huong in the triple jump.

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