Vietnam up in FIFA rankings

The Vietnamese men’s football team has climbed three notches to 153rd in the latest International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rankings released for September.

In doing so, it surpassed Singapore to reclaim third place in the Southeast Asian region. Thailand still leads regional rankings despite slipping back to 139th in the world.

Argentina overtook Germany to become the world’s second best team, while Belgium surprised everyone with its four-place surge to sixth.

Italy moved up to fourth and Colombia fell back to fifth.

Japan remains on top of Asia after falling six places to 43rd in international terms.

Iran is the region’s second highest ranked team (47th), followed by Australia (52nd), Uzbekistan (57th), and the Republic of Korea (58th).

U19 Vietnam win second match at ASEAN tournament

Vietnam won their second-round match at the ongoing ASEAN Under-19 Football Championship in Indonesia on September 12.

Vietnamese players defeated the Malaysian side 1-0 and topped Group B with six points.

In later matches of the group, Indonesia played Myanmar and Thailand faced Brunei.

Vietnam will next meet the hosts Indonesia on September 14.

The regional championship which sees all member participating will conclude on September 22.

Vietnamese players enter Davis Cup semi-final

Vietnam trounced Pacific Oceania 2-1 to earn a ticket to the semi-final of the Davic Cup-a BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Zone Group III event held at Dubai Aviation Club, the UAE on September 12.

Pacific Oceania is the coalition of small island nations in the Oceania and Asia such as Fiji, Cook and Guam.

In the men’s singles, Hoang Thien defeated William O'Connell (Fiji) and Minh Quan also beat Gilles De Gouy (France) with the same score of 2-0.

Earlier, Vietnam had a 3-0 win over Cambodia. Pool B is topped by Vietnam which is scheduled to meet the second place of Pool A in the semi-final.

Pool A is topped by Hong Kong. Malaysia, Iran and Oman are competing for the second position.

Big challenge for Vietnam at Asian volleyball champs

Vietnamese women will play the most competitive game against their Japanese opponents in their first group match of the 2013 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship in Thailand at 16.00pm on September 13.

This will be a big test for Vietnam as Japan is the strongest team in Group C which also includes Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Japan (World No.3) recently secured a 3-0 easy win over Vietnam at a 2014 Asian Volleyball Championship qualifying round.  

Although a defeat is anticipated, Vietnam still has the chance to qualify for the quarter-finals, because they will play underdogs Hong Kong and Indonesia in the last two Group C matches on September 14-15.

The Vietnam Volleyball Federation has assigned chief coach Pham Van Long to a task of defending Vietnam’s No7 position in Asia.

Experts say the goal is likely to be within reach as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – one of the world leaders – has not competed in the event, offering Vietnam the chance to outperform Kazakhstan, Iran and Taiwan.

The 2013 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship has seen the participation of 16 teams which are divided into four groups. Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and China are expected to be among the top four.

Phuoc steals show at swimming champs

Star swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc stole the limelight on the first day of the national swimming championship, notching two gold medals at the National Aquatics Centre in Ha Noi.

Phuoc, a two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist, showed his dominance of short-distance races, nabbing his first gold medal in the freestyle category. The 20-year-old maintained an early lead, powering his way to a 50.88 seconds finish in the men's100m freestyle event.

However, it was star athlete's performance in the men's 4x200m replay event that brought the crowd to a rapturous standing ovation.

Phuoc was the fourth swimmer in the relay team, by which time they had fallen behind HCM City by full two-body lengths. However, the star wowed the audience, catching up in the first 50m and quickly streaking ahead of the competition to come in first.

"I am happy with the results today. My goal in the tournament was to break my own records," said the Da Nang-based swimmer.

The swimmer also said he was keen to defend the two gold medals he won at the SEA Games in Indonesia two years ago.

Swimming ace Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyen also wowed the crowd, winning two gold medals for HCM City, with Tran Huy Khoi picking up another gold medal for the team in the men's 200m backstroke.

Veteran Nguyen Huu Viet notched a gold medal win for Hai Phong while Quang Binh had its first gold medal with Ngo Thi Duyen dominating the women's 50m breaststroke.

Duong Thi Thom sealed gold medal hopes for Quang Ninh, claiming the women's 200m backstroke event.

Two new records were set on the last day of the National Fin-swimming Championships that ended on Wednesday in Ha Noi.

Tran Bao Thu of Tay Ninh Province won a gold medal in the men's 400m surface (diving with a snorkel) with a time of 3min 07.59sec. This beat his own old record of 3:08.82 made two years ago.

The second record went to Nguyen Ngoc Quang Bao of HCM City who won the men's 200m monofin event.

Bao finished first, clocking 1:41.95, 0.10sec better than the old record he set last year.

Da Nang claimed three more golds to make it the strongest team at the tournament. The team topped the ranking table with nine golds, two silvers and two bronzes.

HCM City were second with six gold, nine silver and two bronze medals. Thanh Hoa stole host Ha Noi's third place in the last seconds with five golds, two silvers and two bronzes.