By Vu Duc - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Host Vietnam won the third Southeast Asia Pensak Silat Championships 2010, which wrapped up in the central province of Thanh Hoa on Tuesday.
The host country defended their title at the third tournament, dominating with 14 golds, five silvers and three bronze.
The performance eclipsed their 2009 victory in Malaysia where they came away with five gold, roughly a third of this year’s tally.
Vietnamese athletes competed in all weight categories, including 22 weight categories in both seni (performance) and tanding (combat) events for men and women.
Almost 200 martial artists from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor Leste and host Vietnam competed for a total of 22 sets of medals since the tournament opened at Thanh Hoa Gymnasium last Thursday.
On the final day, Vietnam secured five gold medals from seven finals in combat events. Among the Vietnamese gold medalists were Nguyen Van Hoang in the men’s 55 kilogram category, Nguyen Thai Linh in the men’s 60 kilogram, Bui Van Doan in the men’s 65 kilogram, Bui Thi Phi Nga in the women’s 50 kilogram and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy in the women’s 65 kilogram category.
Earlier, Vietnamese martial artists won six gold in combat events and three gold in performance events.
Diep Ngoc Vu Minh took the first gold for the Vietnamese team in the men’s 60kg category. Following Minh’s victory, Nguyen Thi Giang took the second gold in the women’s 60kg category.
Four other gold medals were won by Ho Thi Lam Huong in the women’s 75kg event, Tran Quoc Toan in the men’s 90kg event, Nguyen Thi Yen in the women’s 70kg event and Le Si Lien in the men’s 85kg event.
The host’s wins in the performance events went to Nguyen Thi My and Nguyen Thi Binh in the women’s ganda event, Nguyen Tien Tai, Nguyen Huu Tuan and Nguyen Thanh Tung in the men’s regu team and My, Binh and Ngo Thi Quyen in the women’s regu team.
Second-placed Malaysia gained impressive results with six gold medals, nine silvers and five bronzes while third-placed Brunei earned two golds, one silver and seven bronzes.
The tournament was an important preparation for the 2010 World Pencak Silat Championship to be held in Indonesia in December.
This was the second time that Vietnam has hosted this event. Vietnam topped the medal tally, winning 13 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals when it hosted the tournament for the first time in HCMC in 2008.