Chinese trainers have helped many Vietnamese elite athletes to shine at international arena, Ly Gia Thanh, former chief of staff of the Vietnam Olympic Committee, has told Xinhua after Vietnam won its first-ever Olympic gold medal on Sunday.
"Our marksman Hoang Xuan Vinh has created the most outstanding achievement of Vietnam's sports. We have gained our first-ever Olympic gold medal after decades of waiting," Thanh said.
Vinh, 42, claimed the men's 10m air pistol event at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil early Sunday morning.
Before the 2016 Rio Olympics, Vietnam bagged home only two medals, both of them were silver ones. Vietnam grabbed its first-ever Olympic medal in 2000 in Australia with the merit of woman taekwondo athlete Tran Hieu Ngan in the 57-kg weight category.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Vietnamese weight-lifter Hoang Anh Tuan secured a silver gold in the 56-kg weight category.
Back to the gold medal grabbed by Vinh, Thanh said that the marksman's persistence in training and calmness when shooting were two key contributing factors. Other factors included proper training methods of his trainers.
Regarding Vietnam's sports training in general, Thanh said: "Chinese trainers play an important role in Vietnam's sports." Vietnam is now intensifying investment in Olympic sports events, as well as training their athletes in foreign countries, including China.
"Vietnam-China sports relationship is beneficial to Vietnam. For years, Vietnam has sent many athletes in various sports events to China for intensive training," Thanh said, noting that many Vietnamese athletes have been trained in China since they were young boys or girls.
"Such athletes also learn Chinese and master the language. Many of them consider China as their second hometowns," the former sports official stated.
The close sports cooperation between the two countries has helped Vietnamese athletes gain better performances and more achievements, Hoang Vinh Giang has told Xinhua in an interview in the past as General Secretary of the Vietnam Olympic Committee. Now, Giang is the committee's Vice President.
The official said Chinese people in China's southern region are of medium stature like Vietnamese people, so their focus on sports which require flexibility like shooting, archery, fencing and gymnastics; feature small objects such as table tennis and badminton or small categories of wrestling, weightlifting, boxing and judo; include short ranges like athletics; and involve water such as springboard jumping, diving and swimming, which are much suitable to Vietnam's sports development strategy.
"With modest height and weight but the effective stance "flexibility-smallness-shortness-water", Vietnamese people pinpoint space among sports powerhouses to gain good results," Giang said.
As for training cost in China, the country offers Vietnam "preferential prices," Giang stated, noting that many Vietnamese athletes have gone to Chinese localities such as Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Tianjin, Xiamen, Dalian, Shenyang, Hunan and Sichuan for training.
"There're many advantages when Vietnamese athletes undergo training in China with similar customs and food. No bread, no butter," the official said, adding that local athletes feel less homesick because the two countries celebrate the same major festivals such as the Lunar New Year Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Meanwhile, China has sent hundreds of trainers and sports experts to Vietnam, helping the country train local athletes in various sports, including track and field, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting, fencing, women's soccer, table tennis, badminton, wushu and volleyball, Giang said, noting that they have been highly appreciated by Vietnam.
He said that following a sports cooperation agreement signed in 1994, Vietnam's Sports and Physical Culture Committee and China's State General Administration of Sport inked a similar deal in 2004, under which the two sides are to exchange delegations of sports officials, train athletes and coaches, and cooperate on sports science, health care and infrastructure.
Giang said the Vietnam-China sports cooperation dated back to the 1960s. "In the 1960s, a Chinese martial arts master, whose surname is Gu, came to Vietnam, helping late President Ho Chi Minh improve his taijiquan skills," he noted.
Now, 23 Vietnamese athletes are vying for medals at 10 sports events of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Vietnam pins the biggest hope on their marksmen and weightlifters.
