Vietnamese mother of 2 wins boxing gold at 33rd SEA Games

Linh defeated Tantawa Apisada of Thailand by a unanimous 5-0 decision in the women’s 60kg final on Friday afternoon.

The victory marked her third SEA Games gold medal and stood out as the lone triumph for Vietnam’s boxing team, which contested six finals on the final day of competition.

Speaking after her win, Linh shared the emotional cost behind her success.

Long periods of centralized training and competition have kept her away from her children, with whom she can only communicate through phone calls.

Her youngest child is just five years old.

“My children miss me very much,” Linh said.

“The youngest keeps asking when I will come home. I miss them too. I’m grateful to my husband for taking such good care of the children and constantly encouraging them, telling them that their mother has to go to work to earn money to buy milk for them,” he shared.

Linh is widely regarded as one of Vietnam’s most accomplished female boxers and an inspirational figure for young athletes, embodying resilience as both a top-level competitor and a working mother.

In 2013, she won her first gold medal in the women’s 64kg category at the SEA Games, held in Myanmar.

However, she was unable to defend her title two years later because the host nation, Singapore, did not include that weight class in the competition.

In 2016, Linh got married and welcomed her first child two years later.

Facing severe financial hardship, she returned to training when her baby was just four months old.

At the 2019 SEA Games, competing in the 60kg division, she was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

A year later, she gave birth to her second daughter and took another extended break from competition.

Linh made her comeback in 2022.

She earned gold at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023 and, a year later, secured an official qualification spot for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the women’s 60kg category.

Controversy in men’s final

Vietnam’s other five boxers all fell to Thai opponents in the finals.

The most controversial bout involved Nguyen Van Duong in the men’s 57kg final against Sukthet Sarawut of Thailand.

Duong suffered a cut to his eyelid after being hit by an illegal elbow strike from his opponent.

Following a brief medical examination, the referee ruled that the Vietnamese boxer could not continue and awarded the victory to the Thai boxer.

The decision sparked strong protests from Duong and the Vietnamese coaching staff, who repeatedly argued that the elbow strike violated competition rules.

Nevertheless, the referee did not change his decision.

After the bout, Duong expressed his frustration.

“When I was behind on points, I pushed hard in the third round to try to recover,” he said.

“However, my opponent used an illegal elbow strike, which caused my injury. It was not fair play and very difficult to accept.”