Viet Nam silver, bronze at FESPIC Games

(01-12-2006)

HA NOI — Disabled Vietnamese athletes won silver and bronze medals during the sixth day of the Far Eastern and South Pacific Asia (FESPIC) Games for the disabled, in Malaysia yesterday.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao won her third silver medal after finishing second in the women’s 400m wheelchair race, in the T52-53 class, with a time of 68.37 seconds.

She then clocked in at 2 minutes and 27.32 seconds for a silver medal in the 800m event yesterday afternoon.

During Monday’s competition, Thao also won a silver medal in the 200m event.

Thao’s teammate Nguyen Huong Giang, who has been training for the wheelchair event for the past two months, came third to win the bronze medal.

Tran Nguyen Thai – who holds the 50m women’s breaststroke world record time of 52.77 and has spent the last two years training on the track, took home a bronze medal in the women’s 800m, T46 class, with a time of 2:58.35. She won the medal shortly after her teammate Le Thi Hang won a silver medal yesterday with a time of 2:50.97.

Shot-putter Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga also took a silver medal yesterday in the women’s F13 class.

Wheelchair badminton

After cruising over rivals in the qualifying round in the badminton event, Pham Duc Trung and Pham Hoang Thang bagged a silver medal after losing to Chinese players Li Weiguo and Ma Xutao in the men’s doubles final, stand lower 2 (STL2) class.

In other events, Truong Ngoc Binh and Tran Mai Anh, who competed in the men’s doubles wheelchair (W3), also won a silver medal when they beaten to first place by Malaysians Mazdlan Saibon and Mohd Dairuz in the final.

In table tennis, Vietnamese athletes failed to win final berths as they were stopped by powerhouse teams yesterday.

Pham Van Hoang and Hoang Dinh Ngo lost to China, 3-1 in the men’s team semi-final, class 8, while Vu Van Soan and Hoang Xuan Nang suffered a 3-1 loss to South Korea in the class 6 event.

In the class 9, Nguyen Hoang Thanh and Mai Ngoc Trung failed to win a final berth for the gold medal when they lost to the host team 3-1.

By the end of the sixth day Viet Nam tallied nine gold, 27 silver and 30 bronze medals. — VNS