Sport news in brief

*Taekwondo: VN grabs four golds in Taiwan

*Taekwondo: VN grabs four golds in Taiwan 

A group of Vietnamese young taekwondo fighters from Ho Chi Minh City participated in the 2011 Taipei City Cup Taekwondo Open held in Taiwan last week. 

After two days of competition, Vietnam totally won nine medals, four gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

Three golds in the men’s categories successively belonged to Nguyen Huu Nhan, Nguyen Hoang Nam, and Hong Minh Cao in the under-54-kg, under-58-kg and under-68-kg weight classes.

The last gold medal of Vietnam team went to Nguyen Thi My Tien in the under-57-kg weight class for women.

Tran Nguyen Quoc Dat got one silver medal in the -63kg category for men while Nguyen Nhat Ha achieved a bronze one in the under-53-kg category for women on Aug 16.

On Aug 17, Vietnam’s male athletes competed in -74kg, -80kg and +80kg weight classes and received one silver and two bronze medals.

More than 100 athletes from six countries and territories i.e. host Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam gathered at the Taipei Stadium for this international event.

*Judo: VN to compete at world championships

Vietnam’s potential judoka Van Ngoc Tu, as well as her team, will compete for the most coveted titles at the world championships next week.

The 2011 World Judo Championships will be held in Paris, France from Aug 22-28.

900 athletes from 120 nations are expected to take part in many tough combats divided into 14 weight categories, ranging from under-60-kg to over-100-kg for men and under-48-kg to over-78-kg for women.

*Badminton: Tien Minh seeded first in VN Open

Host country’s Tien Minh, ranked 7th in the world, is the first seed in the men’s singles category in the 2011 Yonex-Sunrise Vietnam Grand Prix Open.

If Minh won this tournament, his position in the world ranking may be boosted to 6th.

Besides Minh, three more Vietnamese male players, Nguyen Hoang Nam, Le Ha Anh, Van Tuan Kiet were allowed to get through the qualifiers without any matches.

*Chess: VN’s grandmasters ready for World Cup

Two top Vietnamese chess grandmasters, Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son will meet with the other 126 strong chess players from more than 40 countries around the globe in the 2011 World Chess Cup.

Liem is the 20th seed of the tournament while Son is seeded 73rd.

In the first round, Liem is expected to play the 109th-ranked Susanto Megaranto from Indonesia, and Son will compete with China’s Li Chao, who was ranked 56th in the  competition.

The tournament lasts for nearly a month, from Aug 26 to Sep 21 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

Other news