Da Nang’s high performance sports continue to flourish as athletes have won many valuable medals at national championships in 2024. Aside from well-known athletes, young faces have excellent performances, promising a positive signal for the local high-performance sports in the future.

Da Nang’s swimming team is offered with favourable training and competition conditions to gain success at national championships. Photo: P.N

The city’s swimming team has just ranked third at the 2024 National Youth Swimming Championship with 9 gold, 11 silver and 6 bronze medals. This is an impressive achievement because this year's tournament is considered highly competitive as attracting 414 swimmers from 31 sports delegations of units and localities across the country.

A total of 38 local swimmers have competed in the events of 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle; 50m, 100m and 200m frog, backstroke and butterfly; 200m and 400m mixed; 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle; and 4x100m mixed relay.

Among them, Tran Van Nguyen Quoc, Le Thi Thuy Trang, Nguyen Viet Tuong and Nguyen Chi Viet have excellently brought gold medals for the city. Previously, thanks to their great efforts in training and competition, team Da Nang have won 7 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze medals, ranking third overall at the 25m pool national swimming championship in 2024.

Continuously ranking in the top 3 at national championships shows the special care and investment of the city's sports industry for swimmers.

To date, the city has already sought young talents who can replace senior swimmers Hoang Quy Phuoc and Nguyen Huu Kim Son in the future. Notable among them are Tran Van Nguyen Quoc and Nguyen Viet Tuong who have outstanding achievements and are being called up to the national team.

Nguyen Viet Tuong shared "I am very happy to win gold medals at two national swimming tournaments since the beginning of 2024, contributing to the overall success of the city's sports sector. The coaching staff creates good conditions for me during training and competition sessions. I set a target to claim gold medals at the upcoming National Swimming Championship slated for October 2024."

According to coach of the Da Nang swimming team Pham Truong Giang, after the national youth swimming championship, the upcoming national swimming championship is the last tournament of the year. To achieve its target of being top three finishers, the team is now under training courses in preparation for the forthcoming championship.

Along with swimming, Da Nang’s boat racing continues to reap success. At the recent 2024 National Rowing and Canoeing Championship for Clubs, Da Nang has ranked third in the group in canoeing category with 5 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal; and fourth in the group in rowing with 3 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals.

Besides maintaining the high performance of experienced rowers like Pham Thi Hue, the city's young ones jave affirmed their courage to compete in the national sports arena.

In particular, Tran Thi Kiet excellently won 2 gold medals in rowing. The 23-year-old athlete hailing from Bac Lieu Province started to join Da Nang sports in 2014. During the process of getting acquainted and practicing, she showed the qualities in rowing. In recent years, Kiet has been called up to the national rowing team, promising to be a worthy replacement for Pham Thi Hue in the future.

In addition to the abovementioned sports, since early this year, Da Nang’s athletes have brought home valuable medals in athletics, billiards, beach soccer and etc at national championships.

According to the Deputy Director in charge of the Da Nang Sports and Gymnastics Athletes Training Centre Tran Do Quang, from now until the end of the year 2024, the centre will create the best conditions for the city's high-performance sports teams to compete in national championships, realising its goal of finishing in top 3 to affirm the position of the city's sports sector.

Reporting by PHI NONG - Translating by M.DUNG, P.TRA