Saigon Heat bag second win

Saigon Heat won their second match at the ASEAN Basketball League on Saturday at their home turf in HCM City, defeating Laskar Dreya South Sumatra of Indonesia 70-48 at the Canadian International School's indoor court.

The second win helps them maintain second place in the ranking table behind Hitech Bangkok City, which also won twice.

Next, Saigon Heat will travel to Jakarta to play Laskar Dreya South Sumatra again at the Senayan Gym Hall 1 on August 1.

Tien Minh drops to 20th in world badminton rankings

Vietnamese top player Nguyen Tien Minh slid three places to the 20th spot in the world badminton rankings, the Badminton World Federation announced on July 24.

Minh's performance at recent competitions has left him with a total point score of 43,470.  Last week, he only placed 17th in the world men’s singles.

This is Minh’s lowest world ranking in the past two years.

In the world’s women singles, Vietnamese athlete Vu Thi Trang dropped seven spots to rank 100th. Vietnamese Le Thu Huyen maintained her world ranking at 159th.

Nghe An boys win U13 title

Song Lam Nghe An successfully defended their title at the National U13 Football Championship-Yamaha Cup on Saturday in Ha Noi, defeating Hai Duong 4-1 in the penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in the official time.

The win gave them their fifth title in this tournament, having previously won in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2013.

The People's Police and Viettel 1 shared third place.

Apart from the award from the organisers, the winner received a VND400 milion bonus from different sponsors, as well as a field trip to Japan financed by Yamaha Viet Nam.

In other news, the Yamaha 2014 Football Camp wrapped up after its second session in Nghe An Province came to an end on Saturday.

Some 275 attendees, aged six to 10 years, have completed the camp, as they learned basic football techniques and skills, self-confidence and sportsmanship.

The camps were one of the activities of the For the Future of Viet Nam Football programme, which has been hosted by Yamaha Viet Nam since 2007.

T&T move closer to title defence

Hoang Vu Samson scored a hat trick in Ha Noi T&T's 3-1 victory over Hoang Anh Gia Lai, maintaining their hope to defend this season's V-League title.

Playing on their home turf, the champions suffered a goal loss just four minutes into the game. Former national goalkeeper Duong Hong Son returned to action after a match off last week, but he failed to block striker Felix Ogbuke's straight shot to the corner after his solo break-in from the left wing.

Yet, the early goal did not bring T&T players down, as they found the driving force to come back strongly.

The Ha Noi players created heavy pressure, but could not knock out Hoang Anh Gia Lai keeper Nguyen Tuan Manh until the 30th minute mark.

Cao Sy Cuong made a smart pass from the right wing, which came to the penalty area. Samson rushed in and converted the leveller for the hosts.

The Nigerian-Vietnamese player had his double just one minute before the break, tapping the ball to the high corner to make it 2-1.

Big-name athletes claim top prizes

International and local big names lived up to their billing by claiming gold medals at the 21st Track and Field International Championships – Viet Nam Open in HCM City.

Short-distance star runner Vu Thi Huong faced no significant competition in the 100m event as she powered to the finish line in a time of 11.81 seconds to add another gold medal to her impressive collection.

Yoo Min Woo of South Korea won the men's 100m event as he crossed the finish line in 10.68, ahead of Jamras Rittidet of Thailand and Nguyen Van Huynh of Viet Nam's Military squad who both ran 10.82.

Middle-distance runner Duong Van Thai of Nam Dinh claimed the gold medal in the men's 800m event, finishing with a time of 1:53.21. Do Thi Thao of Ha Noi won the women's 800m.

Nguyen Duy Bang, 31, another star who once held the Asian record in the men's high jump with 2m25, also won a gold medal with a result of 2m07. Two other Vietnamese athletes wrapped up the podium places.

The South Korean men dominated the men's shot put event with 30-year-old Hwang In Sung, whose best throw reached 17m70, and 33-year-old Choi Tae Ho, who won second place with 16m62. Thawat Khachin of Thailand came third.

The Thais came out strong in the hurdles events, winning both the men's and women's 110m event.

The Filipinos dominated the men's steeplechase event with a one-two finish. Herrera Rene took gold and Ulboc Christopher won silver. Pham Tien San of Bac Giang claimed the bronze medal.

The Philippines won their second gold medal in the morning after Buenaventura Riezel cleared 3.60m to finish first in the women's pole vault. Vo Thi Mong Thuong of Dong Nai and Nguyen Ngoc Minh Duyen were in second and third place, respectively.

In the women's shot put, Le Thi Lai of Soc Trang proved she had no convincing competition as she landed a throw of 13.79m to pocket the gold medal. Tran Le Truc Linh of An Giang took silver and the bronze medal went to Atienza Narcisa of the Philippines.

The second half saw the same happenings.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai, despite playing with the best forwards, could not score more goals, while their defenders worked hard against T&T's consecutive attacks.

Samson bagged his third goal at the 57th minute when he broke into Hoang Anh Gia Lai's defence and easily scored.

With 19 goals, Samson jumped to the top of the best scorer board.

Anjembe Timothy of Hoang Anh Gia Lai was second with 18 goals.

This was the sixth week in a row that Hoang Anh Gia Lai has not won in V-League. These poor results pushed them down to the ninth place in the rankings, with only 19 points.

After 22 rounds, T&T earned 44 points and ranked second behind Becamex Binh Duong, who also won 3-1 yesterday over Quang Nam.

After suffering a strong blow, as six players were arrested following an alleged match-fixing scandal some days before the match, Dong Nai did play an outstanding game, defeating former champions SHB Da Nang 2-1 on their home soil.

Coach Tran Binh Su did find suitable substitutes to fill the holes in his team, and their smooth combination brought sweet results at the 80th and 82nd minutes when Nguyen Hai Anh and Nguyen Rogers found the net for the hosts.

The visitors later narrowed the score when Zbrun Matias Jose's close tap-in went to the net at the 85th.

"As I said before the match, we played with all the best for a good finish. We deserved to have this win. This would be the most suitable, though we are sorry for our fans after such a terrible scandal," said Su, at the post-match briefing.

Coach Le Huynh Duc of Da Nang agreed that Dong Nai's victory was worthy of the host side, who played better with their highly competitive spirit.

Duc worried that the loss would strongly affect his chance to win a bronze medal this season. However, they still have two matches ahead and Da Nang said he would not give up.

In other action, Hai Phong tied Dong Tam Long An 1-1; Thanh Hoa shared one point with Song Lam Nghe An in a goalless match; and Hung Vuong An Giang lost 1-2 to Quang Ninh Coal.

PVF crowned national U17 champions

PVF beat Ha Noi T&T 2-0 yesterday in the final of the national U17 Bong Da (Football)Newspaper Thai Son Nam Cup to be crowned the new champions.

PVF made it through to the final after a 4-2 win on penalties against Viettel, while Ha Noi T&T overcame Binh Duong in identical fashion.

The player of the tournament prize went to Nguyen Quang Hai of T&T, while the golden boot award was shared by Tran Duy Khanh of Binh Duong and Nguyen Thanh Tuan who both scored five goals. Nguyen Thanh Tuan of PVF was named best goalkeeper.

The final round of the cup was held in Hue from July 16-25, with the participation of eight teams.

HCM City emerge winners in national swimming event

HCM City triumphed in the National Junior Swimming Championship which wrapped up at the Aquatic Sports Palace in the Ha Noi-based National Sports Complex yesterday.

The team brought home 26 golds, 18 silvers and 11 bronzes after five days of competition. Long An finished second while National Defence Sports Centre No 5 came in third.

The event also saw nine national records broken, of which Tran Duy Khoi made two new records in the U17 boys' 50m backstroke with a time of 26.66 secs and U17 boys' 100m backstroke with a time of 57.49 secs. Tran Thi Hong Cam also set two new national records in the U13 girls' 400m freestyle and 200m freestyle.

The swimming event attracted 181 athletes from 21 teams nationwide. They competed for 20 sets of medal.

Earlier, the four-day fin swimming event took place in the same venue with the participation of 13 teams. HCM City lead with 18 golds, six silvers and seven bronzes.

Viet Nam come in third at Hangzhou futsal tournament

Despite repeated efforts, Viet Nam lost to China 3-7 to fall to third place in the sixth edition of the Hangzhou International Futsal Tournament, which concluded in China yesterday.

Defending Asian champion Iran triumphed in the three-day tournament, while hosts China finished second.

Iran walked away with the US$5,000 prize, while the runners-up received $4,000 and $3,000, respectively.

The tournament brought together futsal players from China, Iran, Myanmar and Viet Nam, who will gather again on August 17 to prepare for the Southeast Asian Futsal Championships on September 17-28 in Malaysia.

Int’l Vietnamese Traditional Martial Arts Tournament kicks off

The fourth International Vietnamese Traditional Martial Arts Tournament opened in Ho Chi Minh City on July 24.

The event attracted more than 2,000 athletes from 16 countries and territories around the globe and 17 cities and provinces of Vietnam.

Many foreign countries have fielded strong teams of athletes including France, Russia, Belarus, Belgium, Morocco and Germany.

After participating in the tournament running through July 28, participants will then travel to the central province of Binh Dinh to compete in the fifth International Vietnamese Martial Arts Festival in early August.