VietNamNet Bridge – Kickboxers and chess players won four gold medals at the last day of the 4th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) in the Republic of Korea (RoK) on July 6.

Despite a swollen left eye inflicted by an Uzbekistan rival in the semi-final one day ago, martial artist Tuyet Mai’s swift movement, powerful kicks from both legs and extremely effective left punches earned her a quick 3-0 win in the first set against Kazakhstan’s Temirbayeva Tamaro.

Mai’s advantage was maintained in the second set and she had no trouble settled the final match of the women’s 56kg event.

Her teammate, Nguyen Van Su, then unexpectedly defeated stronger rival Husian Albanya from Kuwait in the men’s 74kg event.

Su’s two leading scores were immediately equalised by Husian and they both had to play one minute of extra time, during which his two-point gap was breached in the very last seconds by his opponent.

In the sudden-death round the pressure was so intense that neither of the kickboxers dared to attack first.

The status quo was broken when, with time running out, Su suddenly launched a spectacular left punch to defeat his rival.

Later, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Dung had no trouble in thrashing Kholova from Tajikistan 3-0 to bring home the last gold medal for the kickboxing team.

Meanwhile, the chess team showed their domination to defeat Singapore, Mongolia and the Philippines before tactically losing to top-seeded China in the qualifying round of the blitz chess event to avoid facing it in the semi-finals.

This strategy helped them to easily defeat underdog Uzbekistan 3.5-0.5 before proceeding to the final.

Playing against the toughest rivals, Nguyen Thi Thanh An and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son managed to draw with Zhao Xing and Yu Yanggi, while Thao Nguyen and Le Quang Liem defeated Hou Yi Fan and Ding Lian to secure a 3-1 victory for Vietnam.

With eight gold medals, the same as Thailand, Vietnam placed third in the medal tally by having more silver and bronze medals than its opponent.

This is considered an impressive result for Vietnam at the tournament.

Source: VOV