Drastic and flexible

1. At the 2020 National Track and Field Championships, Nguyen Thi Oanh staged a shocking display winning up to four gold medals and breaking the 16-year-old record in the most extreme discipline, 10,000m. It is worth mentioning that her parameters all surpassed the SEA Games gold medal levels, and Oanh has yet to do her best. In addition to Oanh, many pillar athletes and young talents, such as Quach Thi Lan and Ngan Ngoc Nghia, attained breakthrough achievements, contributing to making the 2020 tournament the most successful version in many years.

It was a true miracle in the context of Vietnamese athletes having had little participation in any domestic and international competitions earlier in the year and suffering from unavoidable impacts regarding both profession and psychology. Oanh shared that during each training session, she and her teammates always strived to complete a heavy and difficult programme in accordance with the “standards” to seal the SEA Games gold medal and compete for an Olympic place.

National team coach Nguyen Van Sy revealed that a number of measures were implemented to help athletes adapt to the new difficult conditions, such as the organisation of weekly internal competitions with assessments and awards. In addition, some sessions were live streamed to athletes’ families and fans aiming to create an exciting atmosphere. Depending on the reality, athletes also had short picnics in high mountains or empty seas to both hone their fitness and refresh the training environment.

2. Besides athletics, adjustments were made in a series of other sports to respond to the pandemic in a proactive and effective fashion, with the application of modern technologies being a common mark. For example, SEA Games record holders Nguyen Huy Hoang and Tran Hung Nguyen once had to undergo eight months without a trainer. An online training method was established. Every day, the swimmer duo arrived at the pool to practise following the weekly training programmes sent by foreign experts via email, which were constantly adjusted to suit the athletes’ training progress. Every evening, in the same way, trainers and athletes reviewed the day session to point out shortcomings and draw out experience. Huy Hoang said that despite practising in this way, he still achieved every stat needed in a strict process towards the Tokyo Olympic Games. At a more difficult level, the Vietnamese national shooting team cooperated with colleagues from other countries, including Thailand, Singapore and Australia, to organise a virtual international tournament. Through that pilot, the shooting department also implemented direction competition right within the national team, as well as between localities. Similarly, the national taekwondo poomsae team had a successful campaign in an official virtual tournament – the 2020 Asian Taekwondo Championships – where they bagged two gold medals.

Vietnam's poomsae team win two gold medals at the virtual 2020 Asian Taekwondo Championships.

3. The extremely impressive statistics of Vietnamese sports were also a dream to many countries throughout the world in 2020 when up to 300 national tournaments were held. Regardless of the adverse impacts of the pandemic, the sports sector organised at least two most important tournaments in each of the 45 events – the national championship and the national youth championship. This proved extremely valuable in creating motivation for trainers and athletes, in evaluating and recruiting forces, and especially in maintaining the normal development momentum of Vietnamese sports.

Many tournaments made adjustments to adapt to reality. For example, V.League 1, the top-tier football league of the country, adopted a two-phase solution, with the participating teams classified into two groups, one for the title race and the other for the relegation race, depending on their first-phase ranking. This helped minimise teams’ travel, reduce costs and save time without depleting the tournament’s competitiveness and attractiveness. Another instance is the Vietnam Basketball Association League (VBA) which applied concentrated playing at a single venue for 50 days and on a world-standard court. Even in the moments when the pandemic posed a direct threat to the maintenance of the tournaments, each sport also took appropriate response. To shorten the playing time, the National Chess Championships skipped the standard chess event and only featured the rapid and blitz categories. Meanwhile, at the National Youth Taekwondo Championships, participating delegations agreed to compete until midnight on the last day to complete the competition programme two days ahead of schedule.

According to Deputy Director of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Tran Duc Phan, the general spirit of always standing ready to organise and compete in any tournaments whenever possible was thoroughly grasped by each locality, each sport department, each trainer and each athlete. Therefore, within just the last three months of 2020, up to 94 tournaments were held at the national level, with the quality ensured in all aspects.

Thanks to those efforts and creativity, 2020 eventually turned out to be a successful year for Vietnamese sports, thus creating an important momentum for the nation’s trainers and athletes towards the 31st SEA Games and the Tokyo Olympic Games.