At the recent 28^th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore, Da Nang’s talented swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc won a gold medal in the men’s 200m freestyle event in a record time of 1min 48.96secs.  This outstanding achievement broke the previous record of 1min 49.22secs which had been set by Malaysian swimmer Henry Bego at the 26^th SEA Games.

In addition, Phuoc brought home the bronze medal in the men’s 100m freestyle event in a time of 50.60secs.

However, he fell short of expectations and his achievements were overshadowed by those of talented young female swimmer Anh Vien, who won 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medals and broke 8 SEA Games records.

Talented local swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc

The reasons for Phuoc’s disappointing results are that he was suffering from chronic low back pain and this year’s competition saw a lot of stronger contestants.    

Earlier, Phuoc had been sent to the Sports Club Renaissance in Japan for a 4-month training course running from 2 February to 5 June.  However, it seems that the club was not an suitable place to help Phuoc improve his skills.  The club’s website says that the Renaissance Club was established in 1982 and its first project was to provide training courses in tennis.

Top priority will now be given to identifying the best ways to help Phuoc improve his skills in order to deserve his title of ‘the extraordinary man of the Han River'.