The 2023 National Athlete and Coach of the Year vote was very exciting, after an impressive year for Vietnamese athletes on the international stage. However, the road to the National Athlete of the Year title seems to be a two-horse race between shooter Pham Quang Huy and track and field star Nguyen Thi Oanh.

Pham Quang Huy surpasses Nguyen Thi Oanh

The most prominent is shooter Pham Quang Huy with the achievement of "opening" the gold medal for the Vietnamese sports delegation at the 19th Asiad. In addition, the athlete from Hai Phong also won 1 bronze medal at the 19th Asiad and 1 bronze medal at the Asian Championship team. Meanwhile, although she did not have any achievements at the 19th Asiad, the "golden girl" of track and field Nguyen Thi Oanh was also very successful in 2023. Specifically, she won the Asian Indoor Track and Field Championship and 4 unprecedented gold medals at the 32nd SEA Games. Therefore, the race to the title of National Outstanding Athlete was very exciting. In the end, Pham Quang Huy won with 985 points from the votes of journalists and sports reporters. The girl from Bac Giang, Nguyen Thi Oanh, ranked second with 815 points.

And it was not too surprising when female cyclist Nguyen Thi That finished third with 697 points. The girl from An Giang brought home the first Olympic ticket to Paris for Vietnamese sports, 1 Asian gold medal and 1 SEA Games gold medal. The next positions were swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang (677 points), badminton "hot girl" Nguyen Thuy Linh (613 points), gymnast Nguyen Van Khanh Phong (443 points)...

National Outstanding Coach Award Goes to Korean Expert

Contributing to Pham Quang Huy's impressive achievement, Korean expert Park Chung Gun (shooting, 419 points) impressively surpassed coach Mai Duc Chung (leading the women's football team to the World Cup and SEA Games 32 gold medal, 277 points) to win the title of National Coach of the Year 2023. This is the first time a foreign expert has been voted for this title.

Meanwhile, Coach Tran Tuan Kiet of the Vietnamese women's volleyball team ranked third with 230 points. Over the past year, Coach Tran Tuan Kiet and his students have made many historical marks for Vietnamese volleyball such as: Gold medal at the Asian Women's Club Championship, Gold medal at the Asian Challenger Championship, fourth place at the Asian Championship, fourth place at the 19th Asiad.

Fierce race for the title of "Outstanding Sports Team"

This year is the first time the voting has added the category "Outstanding Sports Team" to honor athlete groups with excellent performance in team events (from 3 athletes or more).

In this category, the strong candidates are: women's football team (impressive performance at the 2023 FIFA World Cup, SEA Games 32 gold medal), women's volleyball team (Asian Club Championship gold medal, Asian Challenger gold medal, 4th place at the 19th Asian Games and the Asian Championship; SEA Games 32 silver medal, VTV Cup gold medal)... The voting results were very close when the final victory belonged to the Vietnamese women's football team with 850 points, only 10 points more than the second place team, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team. Notably, the women's kara team (Karate) and the women's 4-person team (Soccer) tied for third place with 675 points each.