Over recent weeks, swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc from Da Nang has made impressive progress prior to his attendance at the 29^th SEA Games which will take place in Malaysia in late August.

Swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc

Phuoc has competed in some international swimming tournaments as a member of Hungary’s BVSC Zuglo Club, where he is in training as preparation for the forthcoming international event.

In particular, at the recent Hungary National Swimming Championships, the talented local swimmer finished the qualifying round of the men’s 50m freestyle in 23.08 secs, breaking his own personal best of 23.33 secs set in the Viet Nam National Swimming Championships in 2011.

In mid-April, Phuoc competed in the men’s 100m event at the Swim Open Stockholm 2017 with many strong rivals including Christoffer Carlsen from Sweden and Markus Lie from Norway.  He only qualified in 6^th place in the qualifying round in a time of 50.52 secs, but in the final he took the lead and won the gold medal in a time of 49.96 secs.

Mr Nguyen Dong Hai, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Athlete Training Centre, remarked “Phuoc is producing excellent performances in the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle, but his great rival Joseph Schooling from Singapore is a heavyweight opponent in these events.  Therefore, top priority is being given to training Phuoc for the 200m and 400m freestyle events instead of his rival’s strong events.” 

He added that Phuoc won the gold medal in the men’s 400m freestyle in a time of 3 mins 55.85 at the International Swimming Championships 2016 in Hungary’s capital city of Budapest.  His strongest rival at this distance is Wee Sheng Welson Sim from Malaysia who finished the same event in 3 mins 53.97 at the SEA Games 2015, and in 3 mins 51.57 at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In order to reduce the around 4 seconds gap to the Malaysian swimming star, Phuoc has to put in even more effort to gain success at the SEA Games 2017.