Exhilaration: Champion Pham Thi Binh (above) celebrates on the podium after receiving her winner's trophy while Tran Van Loi is seen crossing the finish line of the Ba Ra Mountain Climbing Race in Binh Phuoc Province yesterday. — VNS Photos Hai Van

HA NOI (VNS)— Pham Thi Binh enjoyed a satisfying end to the weekend by defending her title in the women's category of the annual Ba Ra Mountain Climbing Race in Binh Phuoc Province.

Binh, from Quang Ngai, finished the 5.4km course to the mountain's peak first, in a time of 32min 48.34sec.

"The road sloped extremely quickly and it took me a lot of energy to keep on going," admitted a victorious Binh to the Viet Nam News after the race.

"I ran well for the first half of the race, but then fell behind to some runners from the host province as they were more familiar with the terrain. However, over such a long race having strong endurance is the most important thing and I was able to push myself during the last hundreds metres to go and win the race."

It was the second time in a row that the 24-year-old has triumphed in the tournament, which this year attracted the participation of around 150 professional athletes and more than 710 amateur runners.

"Her result was 45 seconds faster than last year, although she had no chance to practse in this special terrain because there are no mountains in her home of Quang Ngai. I am really satisfied with her achievement and I believe that she can even improve on her result next year," said her coach Tran Van Nhan.

It was Binh's fourth title in five tournaments. She also took the gold medal in the 10.000m event of December's ASEAN Students Games in Laos.

In the Ba Ra Race, Nguyen Dang Thanh Thuy and Nguyen Thi My Chi from Khanh Hoa Province finished second and third, respectively.

In the junior girls' category, Vo Nien Thanh Thu of Khanh Hoa came home with the gold, followed by the host's Tran Thi Thanh Hoa and Loan Thi Dinh from the Army team.

In the men's event, defending champion Tran Van Loi maintained his dominance by finishing first in the 7.7km race.

Loi left his teammate Nguyen Thanh and the Army's Bui The Anh far behind and won in 33:02.49sec.

Loi also won the national 42.5km marathon in October.

"I have trained hard to improve my endurance and speed for this event. I hope that in the near future my ability improve further to keep me on top," said Loi after receiving his trophy.

In the boys' class, the top three were Bui Ngoc Tuan from the Army, Dinh Hoang Phuc of Lam Dong and Pham Tam from Quang Ngai.

Despite having only title from Ba Ra, Khanh Hoa - the national hub of track-and-field - ranked first in the team rankings because many of their athlete were in the top three and top ten categories across the event.

The Army team came second and hosts Binh Phuoc were third. — VNS