City musclemen dominate national bodybuilding meet
HCM City athletes dominated the Vietnamese National Bodybuilding Championship taking home eight gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
Trio Giap Tri Dung, Nguyen Hai Au and Cao Quoc Phu took golds in the last competition day on Monday to help HCM City win the National Sports Meet event.
In the first competition day, Le Co Ngoc Bao, Nguyen Thanh Ha, Nguyen Anh Tai and Nguyen My Linn pocketed the gold for HCM City.
Competing in the men's over 90kg weight category, the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games silver medallist Nguyen Anh Tai outperformed his rivals for the gold.
Meanwhile, Tai's teammate, Nguyen Thanh Ha also took out the title in the men's 90kg division, along with Le Co Ngoc Bao, winning in the 80kg class.
Nguyen My Linh, who won the women's over-52kg, and her partner Dao Anh Dung added one more gold in the mixed-double event.
Cao Quoc Phu, who claimed the Asian Championship, played in form in the men's 75kg division with Giap Tri Dung, two-time SEA gold medallist, winning the 85kg.
Dung brought home two gold medals after winning both the Asian Open and the Southeast Asian championship's 80kg events in Singapore early this year.
Pham Van Mach, who won only gold medal in bodybuilding for Vietnam at last December's SEA Games in the Philippines, won the crucial gold medal for An Giang in the men's 60kg.
Mach, who has won the nation's first world title at the sport's international championship meet in Rangoon, Myanmar, added one gold to help An Giang place third.
Dinh Thi Kim Loan won the gold in the women's under-46kg for An Giang in the last competition day.
In the women's under-52kg; Ton Hoang Khanh Lan of Dong Nai team defended her title.
Lan then bagged one more gold medal when she and Le Van Lich won in the under-52kg mixed double event.
The championship, which drew 94 athletes from 13 teams competing for the 16 medal sets, is a chance for athletes testing their form for the national squad selection.
Last year, HCM City's bodybuilders muscled out the competition after garnering eight gold medals on home turf.
According to national team coach Huynh Anh the squad will start an intense training regiment shortly after the tournaments in preparation for the biggest contest - the World Bodybuilding Championship in Ostrava, Czech in October.
The best bodybuilders will also get places on the national squad at the Asian Games in Qatar this December.
