Time to celebrate: Vietnamese professionals defeat students

Vietnam has taken home a big medal haul from the 2012 ASEAN University Games (AUG) that wrapped Thursday in Laos, but it is just because they sent a delegation full of professional national athletes to the event where participants are supposed to be university students.

The Vietnam team, boosted by the participation of key athletes from the national squads, finished second at the event with 119 medals in total, including 56 golds, standing behind Malaysia with 180 medals and 60 golds.

Typical national athletes from the 224-member team are swimmer Nguyen Huu Viet, volleyball players Ngoc Hoa and Pham Thi Yen, or table-tennis player Mai Hoang My Trang.

There are also big names such as judoka Van Ngoc Tu and taekwondo martial artist Le Huynh Chau, both attending the 2012 London Olympic Games last summer, or SEA Games medalist Huynh Nhat Thong.

The powerful squads enabled Vietnam to easily defeat their competitors in many sports such as taekwondo, table-tennis, and volleyball.

Eight out of 12 finalists of the table-tennis event are Vietnamese, while the nations powerful in this sport, who sent real students to the tournament, were all defeated from the qualifying rounds.

The Vietnamese women’s football team also beat Thailand to win the gold medal, after a finale in which many thought they were watching the Vietnamese national team playing due to the presence of too many national footballers.

Not against the rule

Ngu Duy Anh, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of University and Professional Sports, said all of the Vietnamese athletes at the AUG are qualified for participation.

“It is only required that the participants be students at the colleges and university, aging from 18 to 28,” Anh said, citing the event regulation.

The Vietnamese national athletes are in fact attending different universities as per law, he said.

“There are no clause banning athletes who are playing for their national teams or who have attended professional tournaments from attending the AUG,” he added.

Anh also revealed that other countries also sent their national athletes to the event.

“That’s why Vietnam could not grab any gold at the swimming, badminton, and tennis categories,” he said.

Asked why Vietnam didn’t create opportunities for the real students to play at the event, Anh said the country would gain no achievements doing so.

“The students, who have only practiced sports for a couple of years, cannot have good results, and may even suffer injuries.

“We have invested hugely for the athlete training, so should we risk losing them all without gaining any achievements?” he said.