Women’s sepak takraw team seal first gold of the Games

(07-12-2006)

HA NOI — The women’s sepak takraw team clinched Viet Nam’s first gold medal at the Doha Asian Games after beating SEA Games champions Thailand 15-11 in a deciding tiebreaker to win 2 regus to 1 in the final yesterday at Al-Sadd Indoor Hall.

The score in the deciding regu was 12-21, 21-15, 15-11.

Each regu event consists of three players plus two substitutes per team.

Viet Nam defeated Thailand, whom they had not beaten since 2000.

The medal ended Viet Nam’s runners-up jinx, after they finished second behind Thailand at both last year’s World Championships in Bangkok and the SEA Games in the Philippines.

The gold, which helped lift Viet Nam up five steps to 13th on the Games’ medal table, is added to the silver they won at the last Asian Games in Busan four years ago, where they lost to Thailand in the final, and to the bronze they clinched at the 1998 Games in Bangkok.

Luu Thi Thanh, Nguyen Bich Thuy and Nguyen Hai Thao came back from a set behind to beat Thailand in the first regu tiebreaker, winning 13-21, 21-14 (15-11).

Thailand levelled the score by beating Nguyen Duc Thuc Hien, Nguyen Thi Hoa and Le Thi Hanh in two sets, 21-12, 21-15 in the second regu.

The third Vietnamese trio – Nguyen Thi Thuy An, Nguyen Trinh Thu Ba and Nguyen Bach Van – sealed the Viet Nam’s first Doha Asian Games gold when they fought back from a 12-21 loss in the first set to take the second 21-15. They won the tiebreaker 15-11.

Viet Nam cruised to the finals after upstaging South Korea in three regus on the same score of 2-0 in the semi-finals on Tuesday. Thailand beat China 2-1 earlier in the day in the other semi.

Marksmen miss gold

Marksmen yesterday took a bronze in the men’s 10m running target mixed team event at Doha’s Lusail Shooting Range to raise the shooting team’s medal haul to four, including the women’s 10m running target team silver won on Monday.

Tran Hoang Vu scored 366 points to place 9th in the individual rankings, two steps above Nguyen Manh Cuong who got 363. Nguyen Van Tung finished 12th with 361 to help the trio come in third on the team table with a total score of 1,090, 40 points off those of gold medal-winning Kazakhstan, who claimed the next four individual slots behind Chinese singles titlist, Gan Lin.

The Qatar team took the silver at 23 points behind Kazakhstan.

The other two bronzes won by shooters were from Dang Hong Ha, who finished third individually in the women’s 10m running target event on Monday, and the men’s team in 10m air pistol on Sunday.

Footballers out in style

The men’s footballers, already kicked out of the competition after two losses, said goodbye to the Asian Games with a convincing 5-1 victory over Bangladesh in their last group B match late on Tuesday at Al-Arabi Stadium.

Phan Thanh Binh, replacing Nguyen Anh Duc who did not make an impression in the team’s two losses to Bahrain and South Korea, stole the spotlight with a hattrick.

Keeper Duc Cuong, fielded in for To Vinh Loi, who made clumsy mistakes in the 2-0 loss to South Korea on Monday, took charge of the game from the early minutes, resulting in Binh’s opener in the 14th minute.

The Bangladeshis, awakened after Binh’s goal, regained the game’s balance and capitalised on a Viet Nam defending mistake to level the score in the 41st minute with Munna’s goal.

The second half saw Viet Nam in command with Binh scoring two goals in three minutes, capitalising on Bangladeshi defending errors to complete his hattrick.

Bangladesh threw the game after falling behind, giving Viet Nam the chance to easily score two more goals, one from Footballer of the Year winner Le Cong Vinh in the 72nd minute and the other from Le Tan Tai in the 77th.

South Korea beat Bahrain 1-0 in their last group match to finish atop the group. The two teams both marched through to the quarter-finals while both Viet Nam and Bangladesh were sent packing.

Cue masters snookered

Tuesday also saw the exit of Viet Nam from the snooker round-of-16 when World Cup Pool doubles quarter-finallist Luong Chi Dung and Do Hoang Quan easily lost 3-0 to host favourites Mohsen Bukshaisha and Ahmed Saif.

Quan started the match with a singles 76-14 loss to Bukshaisha and SEA Games champion Dung was defeated 70-13 by Saif.

The Vietnamese duo suffered a humiliating 85-8 defeat in the doubles match by the host world medallists.

In the English billiards draw, Nguyen Thanh Long and Nguyen Thanh Binh all fell out of the singles competition.

Long lost to Indian former world champion Pankaj Arjan Advani in five sets although he led the match in the first two (102-81, 102-68). But the Indian, who then overcame rivals from Thailand and Myanmar to reach the final, had enough experience to fight back claiming the last three sets to win the clash.

Binh easily fell to Thailand’s Thawat Sajuritthurakarn, who then lost to Advani in the quarters, losing 37-104, 76-100, 14-100, in the other match later on the day.

Poor showings

Cyclists Mai Cong Hieu and Nguyen Thi Hoang Oanh both finished low in the individual time trials with SEA Games gold medallist Hieu coming in 7th in the men’s event and Oanh 10th in the women’s.

In judo, the country’s top two judokas, Van Ngoc Tu and Tran Van Doat, both failed to advance to the semi-finals on Tuesday.

Southeast Asian champion Tu lost to Misato Nakamura from Japan, which is the native country of the sport, in the women’s 48kg.

Men’s 60kg Southeast Asian champion Doat was defeated by South Korean Cho Nam-suk by an ippon (10 points).

Boxer Hua Duc Trong was punched out of the men’s 91kg qualifying competition by Syrian Asian champion Al Shami in three rounds, losing 1-6, 2-6, 2-13.

Swimmers also turned in a poor performance on Tuesday when national champion Do Huy Long finished fourth in the men’s 100m backstroke qualifiers and Thuy Duong came in third in the women’s 100m breaststroke qualifying round. — VNS