Vietnam eyes 3 Olympic taekwondo medals
15/8/2008 17:00
Vietnam, offering cash and land awards to its taekwondo athletes, targets
three medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, according to local newspaper
Labor today.
"The three (taekwondo) athletes are ready. Nguyen Van Hung's
foot injury has fully recovered. The whole team wants to gain medals, three, not
one," said Truong Ngoc De, general secretary of the Vietnam Taekwondo
Association.
The People's Committee of central Thanh Hoa province, the native
place of Nguyen Van Hung, has decided to offer him a plot of land worth around
550 million Vietnamese dong (US$32,900). Hung is the first athlete born in Thanh
Hoa to get land award from the provincial authorities.
The association has
promised to offer US$30,000, US$20,000 and US$10,000, respectively, to those who
win a gold, silver or bronze medal at the ongoing Olympic Games. Local woman
taekwondo Tran Thi Ngoc Truc will start competition first, on Aug. 20, followed
by Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu and Nguyen Van Hung.
On Aug. 10, Vietnamese
weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan grabbed a silver medal in the men's 56kg category at
the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Vietnam's first medal at the world's biggest
sports event.
Vietnam participated in the Olympic Games for the first time in
1980, and won its first Olympic medal, a silver one, in 2000 with the merit of
woman taekwondo player Tran Hieu Ngan in the 57kg weight category.
Xinhua
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