The 7^th National Sports Festival concluded on Tuesday in Nam Dinh Province.  The Da Nang team finished 6^th out of the 62 teams with 22 gold, 29 silver and 32 bronze medals.

The Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Head of the Da Nang team at the competition, Mr Nguyen Phuc Linh, remarked that the team fulfilled their key targets in terms of medals and ranking.  Despite many difficulties during their preparations for this year’s competition, the city’s coaches and its athletes had made great efforts to gain remarkable achievements.

Swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc

Swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc is a typical example.  The talented swimmer finished his race in 1min 59.96secs in the men’s 200m butterfly event.  This outstanding achievement broke the previous national record set by Vo Thai Nguyen in a time of 2 mins 00.33 seconds.  Meanwhile, Taekwondo martial artist Tran Ngoc Tuan won a gold medal in the men’s 58 kg.  In the diving competition, the team from Da Nang finished in 5^th place with 2 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals.   In addition, local weightlifter Nguyen Thi Kim Van set 3 new national records in the women’s above 75kg category by lifting 251kg overall with 110kg in the snatch and 141kg in the clean and jerk.

In an effort to help the Da Nang team secure its position at the same event in 2018, Mr Linh stressed the need to start the construction of an athlete training centre as soon as possible.  In addition, importance will be attached to developing those key sports in which the city boasts great potential, as well as issuing more preferential policies for talented local athletes.

By the end of 2018, some of the city’s existing athletes will have retired due to their age.  Therefore, special heed will be paid to finding and training more qualified athletes to promote the development of the city’s sports sector in the future.