2018 National Games: Hanoi dominate in athletics

The Hanoi sports delegation proved the superior in athletics in the sport’s first completion day at the ongoing 2018 National Games on November 27.

Hanoi’s athlete Bui Thi Thu Thao wins a gold, setting a new record in long jump event with 6.29 m.
Hanoi’s athlete Bui Thi Thu Thao wins a gold, setting a new record in long jump event with 6.29 m.

>>> Hanoi maintain National Games reign with four additional golds

The capital city team won five out of 12 gold medals granted in athletics in the day, while delegations from Nam Dinh province, the army, Vinh Long, Ho Chi Minh City, the People's Police, Ninh Thuan province, and Thua Thien - Hue province only won one gold each.

Especially, Hanoi’s Bui Thi Thu Thao broke the 23-year Games record in women's long jump with a record of 6.29 m (the previous record in 1995 was at 6.28 m), but it is still far behind her national record of 6.68m. Thao also brought home a gold in the last Asian Games in August.

Hanoi’s athletes also set new records in the 4x800 m female team relay and in both women's and men’s team 4x400 m relay.

On Tuesday morning, cyclists began completion of road cycling on Le Duc Tho street, My Dinh, Hanoi. In the women's event, prominent national squad member Nguyen Thi That (An Giang province) beat her 28 opponents to claim the champion after finishing 12 rounds, with 3.3 km each, with 16 points. Meanwhile, in the 59.5 km men’s event, Le Nguyet Minh (Ho Chi Minh City) was the champion with 13 points, only one point ahead of silver medalist Nguyen Thanh Tam (An Giang).

Athletes continued to bounce national records on the second day of diving with three new records being set. Ho Chi Minh City delegation currently lead the diving course with five gold medals, followed by three teams from Hanoi, Quang Binh and Hai Duong with two gold medals each.

In shooting, Olympic gold medalist Hoang Xuan Vinh joined his teammates to win the gold medal in 50m pistol for the army team.

In the ten finals of the 1,000m canoeing events held yesterday afternoon, Quang Ninh were the only team to win two gold medals in the day.

At the end of the competition day on November 27, the Hanoi delegation still lead the medal tally with 40 golds, followed by Ho Chi Minh with 24 golds and Binh Duong province with eight gold medals.