The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee awarded certificates of merit to outstanding athletes.

In the first days of the new year, the moment Son La athletes put on the national flag and celebrated winning gold medals at international tournaments, everyone was very emotional and proud.

Looking back over the past year, Son La sports continued to achieve many impressive achievements in domestic and international sports competitions, bringing glory to the country and the province. The province's athletes participated in 46 regional, national and international competitions. As a result, they won 148 medals, including 36 gold medals, 38 silver medals, 74 bronze medals, exceeding the planned target by 118%.

Among those impressive achievements, the most notable are athlete Quàng Thị Thu Nghĩa winning the Gold medal for the 4th time at the World Pencak Silat Championship and being voted the best athlete of the tournament; athlete Bạc Thị Khiêm winning the Gold medal (in the women's individual competition, 67 kg) at the Asian Taekwondo Championship; athlete Lương Thị Hồng winning the Bronze medal (in the women's javelin throw) at the Southeast Asian U18 Athletics Championship...

Returning home to celebrate the Lunar New Year of At Ty 2025 in the "sweet banana and fragrant mango homeland" Yen Chau, Quang Thi Thu Nghia, the "golden girl of Pencak silat" of Vietnamese sports, brought home a huge collection of medals with 2 Gold medals at Seagame 31, 32; 4 Asian Gold medals in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023; 3 World Gold medals in 2018, 2019, 2022. Most recently, on December 22, 2024, Thu Nghia shone for the 4th time on the international arena, with a Gold Medal at the 20th World Pencak silat Championship held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

But few people know that behind the sparkling medals, her path to pursuing Pencak Silat is a process of hard training. She had to undergo treatment many times due to injuries. The care and encouragement of her family, the guidance and help of her coaches encouraged Nghia to overcome all difficulties, determined to do her best in training, improving her skills and tactics to compete for the flag and colors of her homeland.

Athlete Quang Thi Thu Nghia won the Gold Medal at the 20th World Pencak Silat Championship in Abu Dhabi. Photo: PV

Thu Nghia shared: To bring high achievements to the country and the province, I have tried very hard in training and competing. I always train myself, trying to develop more professional techniques. Not resting on my laurels, I continue to try to practice, determined to gain more achievements for the country's sports.

Like Thu Nghia, Thai ethnic athlete Bac Thi Khiem was born in Muong Gion, Quynh Nhai district. Having trained and studied away from home since the age of 12, she wanted to give up many times because she missed her parents and the pressure of both intense training and studying. With her own efforts and the dedicated guidance of her coaches, after more than 10 years of pursuing Taekwondo, Khiem has also achieved an impressive list of achievements, such as: Gold medals at the 30th and 31st SEA Games; Gold medals at the 2017 and 2022 Southeast Asian Championships and the 2024 Asian Championship; and many outstanding achievements in domestic tournaments.

Sharing with us, Bac Thi Khiem said: The important thing for each athlete is to have the spirit of overcoming difficulties, learning and perseverance. The training time is very strict and long, requiring athletes to have determination and effort to practice and complete the exercises given by the coach.

Quang Thi Thu Nghia and Bac Thi Khiem are just two of many athletes from Son La who have achieved high results in domestic and international tournaments. They not only compete for the colors of their homeland but their achievements have also contributed to making the country's sports famous.

"Golden girls" of Son La sports.

The "sweet fruits" achieved today are the result of the effective implementation of the Project on developing high-performance sports in Son La province for the period 2021-2030. Currently, the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center is training more than 150 athletes from talented, youth and provincial teams in the following sports: Tennis, badminton, Taekwondo, athletics, Pencak Silat, football, Muay... Notably, most of the athletes are children of ethnic minorities in the province, including many female athletes.

Mr. Do The Cong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: Son La attaches special importance to athlete selection. This is considered a prerequisite and key step in the process of developing high-performance sports. Therefore, every year, through coordination with schools in the province, grassroots sports tournaments, and mass sports, we search for, discover, and select talented athletes to supplement the next generation of the provincial teams. Training is focused on 3 levels: Talent, youth, and provincial, thereby gradually raising the level of training to participate in national and international tournaments.

The involvement of the government, functional departments and the efforts of athletes to overcome difficulties have overcome the lack of facilities and equipment in training, the long days away from loved ones, and the hard work to become talented. The achievements that Son La province's sports have achieved today are a vivid manifestation of the spirit of "Overcoming difficulties - Overcoming oneself". That victory has the value of inspiring and spreading good things for young athletes to continue to achieve new successes.

Faces of the provincial youth sports teams.

At the meeting to commend coaches and athletes of Son La province for their outstanding achievements in international sports competitions in 2024 held in early 2025, comrade Nguyen Dinh Viet, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, acknowledged and highly appreciated the outstanding achievements of coaches and athletes at international sports competitions in 2024. At the same time, he hoped that coaches and athletes would continue to promote their achievements, strive to practice, overcome difficulties to achieve the highest results in the following tournaments, contributing to the development of national sports, bringing glory to the Fatherland.

New year, new journey with the best wishes. High-performance sports of Son La province continue to achieve many new milestones on the development path, contributing to providing quality athletes of many ages for the national team's competitions, bringing glory to the Fatherland and homeland.

According to: Son La Newspaper