Hoang Nguyen Thanh has successfully completed the 42.195 km marathon at the 2024 Asian Championship with a time of 2 hours 18 minutes 43 seconds. With this achievement, the Vietnamese athlete not only broke his personal record but also shattered the national record that has existed for more than 20 years.

The old national record for the marathon was 2 hours 21 minutes 51 seconds, set by athlete Nguyen Chi Dong in 2003, which has stood for more than 20 years. Former athlete Nguyen Chi Dong set this record when participating in the men's marathon at the 22nd SEA Games, the first Southeast Asian Games hosted by Vietnam. However, athlete Nguyen Chi Dong only finished second and won the silver medal, while the gold medal was won by athlete Allan Ballester (Philippines, with a record of 2 hours 21 minutes 3 seconds).

This will certainly be a memorable memory for Hoang Nguyen Thanh. After winning the 2021 SEA Games gold medal, Thanh has also made history in Vietnamese athletics. Previously, Nguyen Thanh was the first person to win a gold medal in the men's marathon at the SEA Games for Vietnamese athletics.

Not long after Hoang Nguyen Thanh broke the national marathon record after more than 20 years of waiting, Hoang Thi Ngoc Hoa also set a new milestone in her athletics career.

The girl born in 2002 finished the 2024 Asian Marathon Championship with a time of 2 hours 44 minutes 52 seconds. With this achievement, Hoang Thi Ngoc Hoa set a personal record on the 42.195 km marathon, at the same time breaking the old national record set by Hoang Thi Thanh in 2016 (2 hours 45 minutes 9 seconds).

Thus, on the morning of January 21, two national records for the 42.195 km men's and women's marathon were both broken. The pair of athletes from Binh Phuoc province excellently created a new milestone for Vietnamese athletics at the same time.