Scooping the championship of men's single at the national strong table-tennis team tournament 2015, which has recently taken place in Nha Trang City, senior athlete Doan Kien Quoc partly helped Khanh Hoa's table-tennis to return to the top list of strong teams in Vietnam.
Scooping the championship of men’s single at the national strong table-tennis team tournament 2015, which has recently taken place in Nha Trang City, senior athlete Doan Kien Quoc partly helped Khanh Hoa’s table-tennis to return to the top list of strong teams in Vietnam.
According to Nguyen Minh Dat, Professional Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Sports Technique Training Center, it was difficult for Khanh Hoa team to win medals at this year’s tournament. It was because Khanh Hoa team was in the same group with the two present strongest table-tennis teams in Vietnam which were Hanoi T&T and Hai Duong. Apart from that, young players of Khanh Hoa like Nguyen Tran Hieu Ngon and Do Thanh Nhan have still had not much experience and joined the tournament with the target to learn experience. Therefore, Doan Kien Quoc was considered as the mainstay of Khanh Hoa team at the tournament.
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| Senior player Doan Kien Quoc (right) |
In the preliminary round, Kien Quoc had to play against quite good athletes, such as Phan Huy Hoang, former member of the national table-tennis team, and Nguyen Van Ngoc, the second strongest player of Hai Duong. Entering the knockout round, Kien Quoc continued to show excellent performances and overcame many strong athletes, including Dinh Quang Linh - the national current champion, and Le Tien Dat - the runner-up at the national table-tennis tournament 2015, silver medal winner at SEA Games 27. Especially, in the final match, Kien Quoc asserted his competing skill and spirit when he came from behind to win 4-3 against Nguyen Anh Tu, the strongest athlete of Hanoi.
About 5 to 7 years ago, the victories of Kien Quoc, who used to be the key player of Vietnam’s table-tennis, at the national tournaments or regional ones could bring the audience no surprise. However, after leaving Petro Vietnam team and the national team in 2012, Kien Quoc spent most of his time in training table-tennis for Khanh Hoa’s players in the hometown. From then, he has been both coach and athlete of Khanh Hoa’s table-tennis team. In 2012 and 2013, Khanh Hoa returned to the domestic table-tennis tournaments after a lengthy time. In 2015, only with the golden medal of Kien Quoc, Khanh Hoa’s table-tennis overcame many strong teams to get whole-group third place.
At present, some young players such as Hieu Ngon, Thanh Nhan, Nguyen Dinh Minh Thu, who won two bronze medals at the national tournaments for children and teenagers, are expected to become the good athletes of Khanh Hoa’s table-tennis. Hopefully, in the near future, table-tennis will once again become one of the strengths of Khanh Hoa’s sports .
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
