Khanh Hoa's traditional martial art team has few members as compared with the general level of the country. However, the traditional martial art athletes of Khanh Hoa have often won medals at the national tournaments.
Khanh Hoa’s traditional martial art team has few members as compared with the general level of the country. However, the traditional martial art athletes of Khanh Hoa have often won medals at the national tournaments. For example, at the National Sixth Traditional Martial Art Championship taking place in Binh Dinh Province at the end of July, Khanh Hoa’s delegation gained noticeable results and placed fifth out of 21 delegations.
The top five in order of rank included Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Dinh, Police, Army, and Khanh Hoa. Ho Chi Minh and Binh Dinh were outstanding delegations not only in traditional martial art but also in other sports. Binh Dinh is also the cradle of Vietnam’s traditional martial art; therefore, their athletes have often been superior to other localities’ athletes.
At this championship, Khanh Hoa team got the same number of gold medals but fewer silver and bronze medals with the Police and Army, who were also strong units in traditional martial art. The athletes of Khanh Hoa have showed stable form in demonstration event with three gold medals, four silver ones and three bronze ones out of four golds, five silvers and four bronzes gained in both events, demonstration and combat.
The gold medal won at the 2014 National Physical Exercise and Sports Festival marked an advance of Khanh Hoa’s traditional martial art. This sport had just been a movement sport in Khanh Hoa. The biggest playgrounds in which Khanh Hoa’s traditional martial art athletes took part were just the provincial level tournaments or sometimes the regional ones. This sport started to be invested better and developed since 2010 when it was incorporated into the competition system of the provincial Sports Technique Training Center.
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Reportedly, Khanh Hoa’s traditional martial art team now includes 25 male and female athletes, in which there are eight athletes of combat event. The fewer number of combat athletes have caused Khanh Hoa’s team to be not as competitive as other teams. However, the combat athletes of Khanh Hoa have often asserted their competence at the tournaments they took part in. According to Tran Hau Thanh, Coach of Khanh Hoa’s traditional martial art combat team, Huynh Tan Phat, Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy and Nguyen Thanh Khoach, who won one gold, one silver and one bronze respectively at the National Sixth Traditional Martial Art Championship, will be the key athletes and are expected to earn medals for Khanh Hoa’s combat team at the National Eight Physical Exercise and Sports Festival.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
