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Nguyen Tien Long is announced champion of the men's 65kg traditional MMA event (Photo of organisers) |
Nguyen Tien Long secured Vietnam's only gold medal from the first Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championship without fighting a second in the final of the men's 65kg traditional event on August 20 in Thailand.
Long was awarded the win after his rival Lerence Seet Jia Le from Singapore withdrew because of injury minutes before the match.
Earlier, he defeated Mu Chun Seung of South Korea and Luo Tia Long of China on the way to the gold-medal bout.
In addition to the gold, Vietnam also took a silver through Duong Thi Thanh Binh in the women's 54kg modern MMA class.
Binh started her match with heavy kicks on her Chinese rival Liu Xiaoni who seemed to have prepared well. Liu mastered grappling as she took Binh down and locked her.
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Vietnam team at the Asian MMA Championship from August 18-20 (Photo of VMMAF) |
The Vietnamese escaped from the difficult position once but, in the second time, she had no way but to tap on the floor to ask for a surrender.
Two other representatives of Vietnam were Nghiem Van Y, men's 65kg modern MMA, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, women's 49kg modern MMA, who took home two bronzes.
Athletes will return home and prepare for the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games which will be held on February 2024, in Thailand.
