Positive changes
Iranian expert Sayed Hassan took office as the coach of the Vietnam national karate team in early March under great pressure and skepticism about whether he deserved to succeed his famous predecessor, former coach Le Cong, who has long been a mainstay in the hearts of Vietnamese karate lovers.
According to Vu Son Ha, head of the karate department under the General Department of Sports and Physical Training, the karate world has seen numerous changes to competitive rules in recent years as a move towards including the sport in Olympic competition. Even Japan, the cradle of karate, had to make appropriate changes in line with the new trend. Vietnam’s opponents in Southeast Asia have also achieved positive progress over the last few years with the support given by foreign karate experts from Iran, France and Latvia.
“Vietnam’s decision to renovate karate comes several years later than that of other regional competitors. The invitation of the Iranian expert is aimed at equipping Vietnamese athletes with new competitive techniques and tactics in preparation for the 17th Asian Games – Incheon 2014 and other long-term goals of the national karate,” Ha emphasised.
Vietnamese karate has transformed for the better in just over one month under the Iranian coach’s leadership. The national team took top honours at the 2014 Southeast Asian (SEA) Karate Championships hosted by the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho in mid-April, winning 14 gold, 22 silver and 30 bronze medals. Meanwhile, Thailand and Indonesia, traditionally strong opponents, won just nine gold medals despite fielding prominent lineups at the competition.
To a certain extent, the country’s top finish at the regional championship has shown the Iranian coach’s ability. More importantly, through the tournament, new features in his training methods became conspicuous to the national karate team’s coaching staff. According to Ha, after watching the competition, Chairman Lim Chee Jin of the Asian Karate Federation Referee Council had to acknowledge that Vietnamese martial artists had shown a good adaptation to technical and tactical changes, with remarkable improvements in their physical strength and movements.
Optimism for Asiad gold medal
Alongside the SEA championships, Vietnamese karate is looking to other important targets in 2014, including the 17th Asiad this September in the Republic of Korea and the world championships in Germany two months later. Karate athletes are working hard towards their goals of taking gold for the fourth consecutive Asiad.
Thirty eight members of the national karate team are currently training at the National Sports Training Centre in Hanoi. The selection of athletes for the 17th Asiad has been assigned to Hassan and other members of the coaching staff on the basis of the athletes’ achievements at domestic and foreign competitions. The karate department’s leaders hope that with the objectivity of the Iranian expert, promising new talent will be discovered and added to the national team.
“A foreign expert normally has an objective look on the athlete selection, not depending on whether the athlete is famous or not. Accordingly, all athletes have equal chances and healthy competition occurs for slots in the national team. Ahead of the SEA championships, some promising youths were discovered and called up to the national team to compete in the tournament”, Ha said.
Vietnam plans to send a maximum team of eight martial artists to the Incheon Asiad, with great optimism for continuing to win gold medals on this grand stage. In the Kata (demonstration) event, hopes are pinned on SEA Kata ‘queen’ Nguyen Hoang Ngan, who has been undergoing a long-term training course in Japan. Despite having missed the 16th Asiad due to injuries, Ngan made a stunning comeback, with individual gold medals at the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar last year and at the recent 2014 SEA Championships.
Regarding the Kumite (combat) discipline, apart from major hopes Vu Thi Nguyet Anh and Lang Thi Hoa, the coaching staff has also been waiting for the recovery of Le Thi Bich Phuong, the owner of Vietnam’s solitary gold medal at the Guangzhou Asiad in 2010. Phuong is currently receiving treatment at the Vietnam Sports Hospital and has seen positive progress in her recovery in recent days.
| Karate has long been one of Vietnam’s strengths at the Asiad. Vu Kim Anh and Nguyen Trong Bao won two Kumite gold medals at the Busan Asiad in 2002. Four years later, Vu Thi Nguyet Anh brought home another Kumite gold for Vietnam in Doha, Qatar. Most recently, martial artist Le Thi Bich Phuong became a heroine of the Vietnam sports delegation after winning the solitary gold medal for the country at the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou. |
