1. Vietnam surpasses SEA Games gold target
The Vietnam sport contingent finished third overall on the SEA Games medal tally, racking up a total of 73 gold, 86 silver and 86 bronze medals, 3 more than the target of 70 gold medals set prior to the 27th SEA Games.
The athletics squad brought in their best-ever haul with 10 gold medals, while the swimmers also achieved great success with five gold instead – far beyond their previous SEA Games best of two.
2. Anh Vien ends Vietnam’s SEA Games gold-medal drought in women’s events
Top female swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien established a historic milestone for Vietnamese swimming at the recent 27th SEA Games in Myanmar, winning the country’s first-ever women’s gold medals on the SEA Games stage.
She also won the most medals of any Vietnamese athlete with a grand total of six – three gold medals in the 200m backstroke, 200m medley and 400m medley; two silver in the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle; and one bronze in the 800m freestyle discipline.
Anh Vien put the icing on her SEA Games cake by breaking two SEA Games records in the women’s 200m backstroke and 400m medley events, with respective times of 2:14.80 and 4:46.16.
3. Shuttler Tien Minh wins bronze at world-class competition
Top Vietnamese badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh brought home Vietnam’s first-ever world-class bronze medal after making his way to the semifinals of the 2013 World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou, China in August.
Despite losing the semifinal clash to Chinese player Lin Dan, Tien Minh’s efforts helped enroll Vietnam as the 18th country in the group of world-class medal winners.
4. Le Quang Liem crowned world blitz champion
June 10, 2013 will forever be remembered in Vietnamese chess history as the day International Super Grandmaster Le Quang Liem became the first Vietnamese player to win the world blitz chess championship title.
Liem, the 11th champion of the tournament, earned a total of 20.5 points, following his 14 wins, 13 draws and three losses, securing a half-point advantage over former champion Alexander Grischuk of Russia.
5. Vietnam women on the brink of securing 2015 World Cup berth
The national women’s football team have made it through to the 2014 Asian Cup finals following their table-topping finish at the Group C qualification tournament held in Bahrain in May.
The team, led by Chinese manager Chen Yun Fat, earned nine points and scored 24 goals in their three consecutive group wins over Bahrain (8-0), Kyrgyzstan (12-0) and Hong Kong (4-0).
The final stage of the 2014 Asian Cup, hosted by Vietnam next May, is an ideal platform for the national women’s team to secure their first-ever berth at the 2015 World Cup.
6. Weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan breaks two SEA Games records
Young weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan broke two SEA Games records in the men’s 56kg weight class with a snatch lift of 129kg and a clean and jerk lift of 156kg at the 27th edition of the Games in Myanmar. The 19-year-old also helped Vietnam defend the 56kg crown won by Tran Le Quoc Toan at the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia, lifting a total of 285kg.
2013 seems to be a perfect year for Thach Kim Tuan, as he embellished his medal collection with three world bronze, three Asian silver and two SEA Games gold medals.
7. U-23 Vietnam go out early at 27th SEA Games
Despite receiving sizeable investment and enthusiastic support from home fans, the national U-23 men’s football team did not live up to expectation, as their SEA Games campaign sputtered out during the group-stage qualifications.
This year’s failure marked a disappointing milestone for U-23 Vietnam as they, for the first time, failed to make the region’s top four teams in five consecutive editions of the Games.
8. Vietnam gymnastics approaches world-class level
The year 2013 was a fruitful year for Vietnam gymnastics, as the country’s top gymnasts proved their talent and achieved success in the world arena.
Pham Phuoc Hung brought home the men’s parallel bars gold medal at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Slovenia, Nguyen Ha Thanh vaulted to gold with an extremely difficult yurchenko double pike at the 2013 Grand Prix Osijek in Croatia, and Phan Thi Ha Thanh garnered the women’s vault gold medal at the 2013 FIG Art World Challenge Cup in Doha, Qatar.
9. Vietnam’s youth football training begins to pay dividends
The national U-19 men’s football team, most of whose players come from the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Arsenal JMG Academy, made a stunning appearance at the 2013 AFF U-19 Youth Championship, winning all their matches before narrowly losing in the finals to Indonesia in a tense penalty shoot-out.
The team then created shockwaves by demolishing Australia 5-1 in their last Group F qualifying match at Kuala Lumpur Stadium in Malaysia on October 7, to storm into the finals of the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship as group leaders.
The team’s success has driven Vietnam football fans to believe in a brighter prospect for the national football team in the future.
10. A joke in the V-League
XM Xuan Thanh Saigon surprisingly submitted a request to drop out of the 2013 V-League with just two rounds left to play, creating an unprecedented joke in the V-League’s history.
The team’s withdrawal was made right after the Vietnam Football Federation had decided to dock them four points, saying that the team violated the regulations of Vietnam football.
This was the first time a football club quit in the middle of the tournament since Vietnamese football shifted into the professional mechanism.
