Former world youth taekwondo champion Hoang Ha Giang died on December 7 at the age of 24 in HCM City.

Ha Giang (right) used to be the big hope of Vietnam sports.

Giang had been unconscious after undergoing surgery for enteritis two weeks ago. She was said to have no resistance left after having used a medicine for treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) for several years.

SLE was the main reason that took Giang away from the martial art seven years ago, when she at her peak.

Giang was a young and talented athlete of HCM City. She first grabbed the world youth gold medal in 2006, when she was 15, and repeated her feat two years later.

Giang's best achievement was winning the silver medal in the women's 49kg category at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

That was also the period when she was diagnosed with SLE, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys and the brain, besides other organs. There is no cure for SLE at present.

Giang retired at the age of 17.

VNS