Affirmation about Hanoi sports' way of doing things

Contributing 2 athletes to the 4-athlete team that won the gold medal in the trio event at the 2025 World Women's Petanque Championship recently held in France, Hanoi sports continued to affirm its long-standing approach.

There are many ways to success

Previously, the former Directors of the Hanoi Department of Sports and Physical Training (now the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports ) Hoang Vinh Giang (deceased) and later Mr. Nguyen Dinh Lan, when talking about how to make Hanoi sports become the leading sport in the country, all mentioned the need to combine many methods. That is, there must be a high-quality training system to have "homegrown" products that meet domestic and international requirements. To do so, there must be a team of experienced domestic coaches combined with foreign experts.

Hanoi sports athletes: Lai Thi Dung (first from left), Nguyen Thi Thi (third from left) and teammates of Vietnam 2 team won the 2025 World Petanque Championship. Photo: FFPJP

It is also that Hanoi sports must truly be a destination, a gathering place for many of the country's leading sports figures. These outstanding figures, when trained and invested in the special sports environment of the capital, will have the conditions to develop their full potential. From there, they can devote themselves to Hanoi sports as well as the whole country.

And besides the factors of facilities and training conditions, training from within the country to abroad also needs to be taken seriously. Only then will coaches and athletes (especially athletes from other provinces, cities and localities joining Hanoi sports) have the opportunity to renew themselves, improve their professional level as well as their courage. It must also be said that this is also one of the attractions of Hanoi sports for athletes from other places.

Over the years, this approach has paid off, most notably in the women's trio gold medal at the 2025 World Petanque Championships, which concluded on October 12 in France.

In the women's trio event, Vietnam has two teams and Hanoi contributes 3 athletes in teams Vietnam 1 and Vietnam 2. In Vietnam 1 team, Hanoi petanque has athlete Nguyen Thi Hien, champion of the 2009 Asian Indoor Games. In Vietnam 2 team with 4 athletes, Hanoi contributes 2 athletes: Nguyen Thi Thi, Lai Thi Dung (Hanoi). The remaining 2 athletes in the team are Nguyen Thi Thuy Kieu (Army), Le Ngoc Nhu Y (Ho Chi Minh City).

Among the four athletes, Nguyen Thi Thi regularly plays as a starter, while the other three take turns playing in two other positions in the Vietnam 2 team in each match. The gold medal of the Vietnam 2 team at the tournament was especially impressive when it overwhelmingly defeated Thailand - the world's top team, with a score of 13-1 in the final. For the insiders, the joy was multiplied when they won the championship right in France, the homeland of petanque.

For the Hanoi coaches and athletes who contributed to this gold medal, it is also an affirmation of the path of Hanoi sports that was mapped out many years ago.

Take the case of Nguyen Thi Thi, for example. This female athlete born in 1990 grew up in the Dong Thap sports training system, won the 28th SEA Games gold medal in 2015 and the 29th SEA Games in 2017. Nearly ten years ago, the girl from Dong Thap decided to join the Hanoi sports team after considering many invitations from other teams. At that time, the training system of Hanoi petanque also created many talented athletes, but attracting more talents from other provinces and cities was still a focus. And those in charge of the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center at that time as well as the petanque department of the Center at that time did not miss the opportunity to have a talent like Nguyen Thi Thi. Up to now, that decision has been proven correct when Nguyen Thi Thi became a pillar in the journey to the second consecutive world gold medal in the women's trio category of Vietnamese petanque. For Hanoi petanque, it was the first time an athlete won a gold medal in this category.

Meanwhile, Lai Thi Dung is a completely "homegrown" product of Hanoi petanque. This Chuong My girl, born in 2000, was selected by Hanoi petanque coaches more than ten years ago. At the Hanoi petanque team, Lai Thi Dung and many athletes were trained in basic techniques by Thai experts alongside the support of domestic coaches. Thanks to that, she and many teammates have made steady progress in their expertise and now contribute to the prestigious world gold medal.

It must also be mentioned that in order to be called up to the national team to participate in the recent World Championship, both Nguyen Thi Thi and Lai Thi Dung had to go through a difficult period during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the domestic and foreign training of the petanque team was almost "paralyzed". Only practicing in Hanoi without any opponents to compete with as well as the lack of change in training environment caused the team's performance to stagnate. It was not until the Hanoi petanque team started to train in the southern provinces and cities in the past 1-2 years that the performance of both of them as well as many other athletes of Hanoi petanque gradually improved.

Can't stop

Head of Hanoi Petanque Department Dang Xuan Vui, also the head coach of the Vietnam Petanque team at the recent World Championship, is someone who has understood the Hanoi sports style for decades. In charge of the Hanoi Petanque team since its inception more than 20 years ago, Mr. Vui and his colleagues have brought the team into the top group in the country.

Looking back at the team's journey until winning the recent world gold medal, Mr. Vui frankly said that if there was no clear path in investment and force building from the leaders of the Hanoi Department of Sports and Physical Training, later the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, then the petanque sport and many other sports would have difficulty gaining a good position in the Vietnamese sports community. Not only did the team have good training conditions in the country, but they also regularly went to Thailand for training to improve their expertise faster.

In fact, for a long time, especially in recent years, the domestic and international training of Hanoi sports teams has been inconsistent, unable to maintain long-term, regular trips. This is partly the reason why many sports of Hanoi can no longer maintain the leading position in the country. People in the profession understand this because they know that even though they have many good athletes, they still have to create the most optimal environment for athletes to develop their abilities. And that really needs to be shared by managers instead of the notion that training is not too necessary, even long-term international training is a waste. Having a preferential treatment regime and attracting talented people for Hanoi sports sometimes cannot make up for the lack of competition and training in the top professional environments of the continent and the world.

The case of the petanque team, with the contribution of coaches and athletes to the recent world gold medal, also stems from the restoration of some of the training to improve the level. And if there are more overseas training trips, it will help to improve the level of athletes. Of course, that is just one of the conditions that need to be thoroughly implemented along with other factors such as nutrition, sports medicine, and training conditions.

So to see, continuing to improve the position of the capital's sports and clarifying the approach that was outlined many years ago is not simple.

Add special treatment policy to feel secure in your dedication

According to the Resolution of the Hanoi People's Council, the decision of the Hanoi People's Committee on "Some special attraction and treatment regimes for athletes and coaches with high achievements in Hanoi", implemented from the beginning of 2024, with the gold medal win at the 2025 World Petanque Championship, 2 athletes of the Hanoi petanque team, Nguyen Thi Thi and Lai Thi Dung, will receive support of 23.5 million VND/month. This support level will be implemented for about 2 years, until the next world tournament. With this level of support, athletes can completely feel secure in dedicating themselves to Hanoi sports. (Minh Khue)

Source: https://cand.com.vn/the-thao/loi-khang-dinh-ve-cach-lam-cua-the-thao-ha-noi-i784769/