Swimmer Vo Thanh Tung at the ninth ASEAN Para Games in Malaysia(Photo: VNA)KualaLumpur (VNA) – Vietnam won a total of 161 medals, including 40gold, standing fourth in the medal tally after seven competition days of theninth ASEAN Para Games in Malaysia.
TheVietnamese delegation of 142 athletes with disability vied for medals in eightevents, including swimming, track-and-field, weightlifting, chess, badminton, boccia,football for the visually-impaired and table tennis.
Besides the golds, the Vietnamese team brought home 61 silver and 60 bronze medals.
The number of Vietnamese athletes was only 42.5 percent of that of theMalaysian team, 72 percent of the Indonesian team and 48 percent of the Thaiteam.
Althoughthe country only participated in half out of a total of 16 events, its athletesbroke 11 Games’ records. Notably, Vo Thanh Tung broke three records and TrinhThu Bich Nhu set two new ones, all in swimming.
Thegold medals mainly came in athletics and swimming, with 17 and 15 medals,respectively. It means Vietnam is on the right track in training its athletes forParalympic events.
All athletes have shown their willpower and overcome challenges, saidNguyen Ngoc Anh, head of the Vietnamese team at the competition.
The ASEAN Para Games is a biannual multi-sport event held after everySoutheast Asian Games (SEA Games) for ASEAN athletes with physicaldisabilities.
The ASEAN Para Games 2017, which will last until September 23, has seenthe participation of all 10 member countries of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN), namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, along with TimorLeste.-VNA
