Vietnam’s no. 1 swimmer Anh Vien took gold in the women’s 100m backstroke event with a time of 1:03.71, breaking her own National Games record set up in 2014 (1:04.43). In addition, she was crowned the fastest on the 1,500m freestyle race, clocking a time of 17:11.75. Anh Vien has won a total of six gold medals so far in this year’s Games, contributing significantly to the Army team’s provisional reign atop the swimming table with seven golds.
The men’s 100m butterfly category saw little surprise as favourite Hoang Quy Phuoc of Da Nang blasted the top honour with a time of 53.63 seconds, breaking the old record that he had set four years ago, by 0.84 seconds.
Tran Duy Khoi of Ho Chi Minh City established a new Games record in the men’s 100m breaststroke discipline as he finished first with a time of 55.49 seconds, 1.38 seconds faster than the previous record he achieved in 2014.
Nguyen Huy Hoang finished the men’s 400m freestyle in style, claiming gold with a time of 3:50.72 and smashing Nguyen Thanh Hai’s eight-year record of 3:58.86.
Le Thi My Thao of Binh Phuoc broke Anh Vien’s 100m butterfly record (1:00.83, set in 2014) by only 0.03 seconds as she swam away with the gold medal with a time of 1:00.80.
* The sepak takraw competition witnessed Hanoi’s absolute domination as the capital’s athletes snatched all four of the gold medals presented on Dec. 3.
* Shooters entered the last day of competition at the 2018 National Games on Monday, with four sets of medals presented.
Nguyen Thu Van of the People’s Public Security team clinched the women’s individual 25m sport pistol gold with 581 points, four points more than that of the silver-medalist, Nguyen Thuy Dung of the Army team. Both also broke the Games record. The team title went to Nguyen Thu Van and teammates with 1,708 points.
Nguyen Thi Phuong of the Army team took top honour and set up a new record in the women’s 50m rifle 3x20 event with 572 points. Phuong’s success contributed to the Army team’s overall reign atop the shooting medal table with 14 golds, four above Hanoi.
* HCM City fencers pocketed all the three medals of the men’s individual epee category, with the top honour secured by Vietnam’s no. 1 Nguyen Tien Nhat following his 15-6 triumph against Nguyen Phuoc Den in the final. Meanwhile, Hanoi’s Bui Thu Ha brought home the women’s sabre gold after beating Phung Khanh Linh of Thanh Hoa with a score of 15-7.
* The People’s Public Security team and Binh Duong shared the two karate gold medals presented on Dec. 3, while the five judo titles were distributed to fighters from Ho Chi Minh City (men’s under-100kg, men’s over 100kg), Ba Ria-Vung Tau (women’s under 70kg), Dong Thap (women’s under 78kg) and Hanoi (women’s over 78kg).
At the end of Dec. 3, Hanoi continued defending their reign atop the provisional 2018 National Games table with 99 gold medals, 18 above HCM City and 55 more than the Army team.
