ASIAN GAMES: HÀ NỘI – Trí and Nam win gold at ASIAD

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese martial artists Nguyễn Văn Trí and Trần Đình Nam each won gold medals at the Asian Games (ASIAD) 2018 in Indonesia, yesterday.

They are the first two gold medals for Việt Nam’s pencak silat team and the third and fourth gold medals for the entire sports delegation.

In the men’s under-95kg final, defending champion of last year’s SEA Games Trí beat Malaysian fighter Yaacob Mohd Khaizul 5-0.

In the first two rounds, Trí launched many kicks but was unsuccessful. He changed his strategy in third round and performed better, while Khaizul lost his temper and continued committing multiple violations until Trí beat him.

The 24-year-old suffered a knee injury before the SEA Games 2015, and has been on the end of some questionable decisions from referees over the years, but the Vietnamese fighter never gave up.

Meanwhile, in the men’s under-75k kg final, Nam beat Khalid Mohd Fauzi of Malaysia 5-0, claiming sweet revenge after losing to Fauzi due to more questionable refereeing calls in last year’s SEA Games.

Pencak silat is a sport greatly influenced by referees, so it is hard to overcome unfair decisions if they take the host nation’s sides.

Việt Nam’s two pencak silat gold medals at the Malaysia SEA Games 2017 were won by sparring techniques. “If the referee had been unbiased, we would have won at least five golds,” said head coach of national pencak silak team Nguyễn Văn Hùng.

In the men’s 55-60kg, Nguyễn Thái Linh won a silver after losing to host martial artist Yudani Kusumah Hanifan.

In the women’s 60-65kg final, Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Nhi also won silver, losing to host fighter Kamelia Pipiet.

Meanwhile, in the women’s team final, trio Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà, Nguyễn Thị Huyền and Vương Thị Bình brought home silver. The gold medal went to hosts Indonesia.

Trần Thị Thêm won another silver after losing to host fighter Wita Wewey in the women’s 50-55kg final.

In the women’s double final, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà and Nguyễn Thị Huyền finished sixth with 544 points. The gold went to the hosts also.

Lastly, in the men’s singles, Vũ Tiến Dũng placed fourth with 435 points.

In total, the national pencak silat team competed in eight events and bagged two golds and four silvers.

Earlier, in judo, martial artists Hoàng Thị Tình, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thủy and Phan Vũ Nam failed in the women’s 48kg, 52kg and men’s 60kg, respectively.

In the women’s volleyball quarter-final, Việt Nam were defeated by Thailand 0-3 (23-25, 16-25, 20-25).

In the women’s 200m hurdle final, Việt Nam’s only hope Quách Thị Lan tried her best but finished in a time of 23.77sec, good for eighth place. The gold medal went to Odiong Edidiong from Bahrain.

Việt Nam has won four golds, 15 silvers and 13 bronzes so far, standing 13th in the medal table. — VNS