Viva Espana: The winning caricature by artist DAD on the Euro Cup 2012 in a competition organised by the The Thao&Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) daily.

HA NOI — The popular Vietnamese-language daily specialising in culture and sport fields yesterday celebrated its 30th anniversary at a function in Ha Noi.

Run by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) was born as a 16-page publication covering World Cup Espana in 1982.

The daily has added a weekly publication on Fridays and a frequently updated website which has been running since June 2008.

The newspaper also produces three programmes on the VNA's television channel VNews – Hanh Tinh The Thao (Sport Planet), Van Hoa Toan Canh (Cultural Panorama) and a talk show, Culture Radar.

At yesterday's ceremony, the newspaper received a first class Labour Order award from the Government.

Addressing the ceremony, VNA general director Nguyen Duc Loi praised the daily as "one of the first newspaper specialising in sports and culture in the 1980s, when knowledge of the field was limited among readers".

The newspaper also organises annual events like Cong Hien (Devotion) Awards for music workers, Press Cartoon Awards and Bui Xuan Phai Prizes for Ha Noi Lovers, for dedicated individuals and collectives making great contributions to Ha Noi.

At the same event, the newspaper presented awards to winners of two contests it organised: one on caricatures from Euro Cup 2012 and the other on written impressions of the newspaper.

Artist Do Anh Dung (pen name DAD) won first prize in the caricature contest with his impression of Spanish football team manager Del Bosque.

Painter Le Anh Phong (pen name LAP) took second prize and Tran Minh Dung (NHOP) came third.

There were 150 entries from professional and amateur painters nationwide.

In the writing contest, hundreds of entries were received and 32 made the final cut. However, judges were unable to separate the top entries and thus awarded top prizes to Vi Thuy Linh, Le Sa Long and Le Chi Dung.

Each contestant wrote on readers' impressions of the daily and recalled reactions to early publications.

The same situation occurred with the runners-up where six people received prizes. Ten encouragement awards were also made. — VNS