Vietnam brilliant wins in first Asian Pencak Silat contest

After six days competing for the championship titles of 135 athletes from eleven Asian countries, the competition ended last month, in Bedok Sports Hall in Singapore. There are many countries, namely Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, which are strong at Pencak Silat, entered the competition. 31 members of Vietnam team took part in this event.

Vietnam got two gold medals at Seni (performance): Nguyen Thi Thuy in singles title and Nguyen Thi Quyen – Nguyen Thi Thuy – Pham Thi Ha in team title.

Meanwhile, nine gold medals went to Vietnam at Tanding (fighting): six of them belongs to male athletes, namely Le Cong Nghiep (50kg), Tran Van Toan (65kg), Le Ngoc Tan (70kg), Truong Van Mao (80kg), Le Sy Kien (85kg), Le Dang Minh (90kg), and the other three for female athletes, namely Nguyen Huong Xuan (50kg), Nguyen Thi Yen (65kg) and Tran Thi Luyen (75kg).

There were two athletes from HCMC competing in this tournament, that is, Tran Huynh Thanh Quoc (95kg) got a silver medal in the male category and Tran Thuy Minh Ly (70kg) received a bronze medal in the female category.

Totally, with 11 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals picked up, Vietnam became the continental champion of this year competition. The second place went to the host country Singapore. Indonesia, the cradle of this martial art, stood at the third place.

Sourced from http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Sport/2011/5/92262/