Atlantas game

If the long jumper can add a small distance to his personal best, he will become the first Vietnamese athlete to jump 8m and prove he belongs on the world stage. Long jumper Nguyen Tien Trong sets up a new record of 7.98m at the National Athletics Championships in 2019 in HCM City. Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Tiến Trọng “It is two centimetres. “Just only two centimetres. “I will make two centimetres this jump.” Nguyễn Tiến Trọng thinks about this tiny distance every day in training. If the long jumper can add the small distance to his personal best, he will become the first Vietnamese athlete to jump 8m and prove he belongs on the world stage. National record holder Born in 1997 in Cẩm Giàng District, Hải Dương Province, Trọng was taller and bigger than any of his friends at school. He was chosen to take part in the provincial track-and-field competitions where he caught the eyes of the Military team’s scouts. He became an athlete when he was 13. “I am the only one in the family as well as the district pursuing sport. So I think it is a fate that I am ‘engaged’ with athletics,” Trọng told Việt Nam News. “My height was an advantage when I participated in different school events. I was offered to join basketball and martial arts clubs but athletics is my true love. “I was only six when I watched the Việt Nam 22nd SEA Games on TV. I had no idea what ‘glory’ meant at that time but was strongly impressed with the way the track-and-field winners were honoured. They received big claps and huge encouragement after winning. It obsessed me. It was the reason why I agreed to join the Military team when invited immediately,” he recalled. “Coaches had to persuade my parents a lot to let me go, saying that I had potential if I was trained professionally. They seemed okay with some doubts but now they have become my biggest supporters,” he said. After nearly nine years of training, Trọng has proved his talent. …

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The Mong in Ha Giang celebrate their Gau Tao spring festival from the 3rd to the 6th day of the lunar New Year to thank the Jade Emperor and other deities for blessing them with health, happiness, prosperity, and bumper crops. Couples who cannot get pregnant attend the festival to pray for having children. “In the past the Gau Tao festival was hosted by married people who couldn’t have children. If they subsequently had children, they would organize another ceremony to thank the Jade Emperor and other deities and invite all the villagers to come share their happiness, and pray for the happiness of all people,” says Vang Chan Giao, a Mong man in Thanh Van commune. One week ahead of the festival, people erect a Neu pole in the middle of the village. The Neu pole, a tall bamboo pole decorated with red paper, is believed to chase away evils. “First, we choose a person to host the festival. Second, we pick a bamboo tree which is about 7 m tall. We plant the Neu pole in an open space and decorate the surrounding area to inform people of the festival," says Giao. "Before planting the Neu pole, a shaman conducts a ritual to thank Heaven and Earth and hangs a bottle of liquor and a sheaf of rice from the top of the Neu pole to represent prosperity and a red cloth to represent good luck,” he adds. The festival follows the Neu pole ceremony and worship of the deities. Young men compete to climb the Neu pole to retrieve the bottle of liquor, the rice, and the red cloth. Vang Minh The, a young man in Thanh Van commune, notes, “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival was cancelled. The Gau Tao festival is a meaningful event for the Mong. We have fun and compete in many folk games. I hope the festival will continue to be held every year so people can pray for good luck and prosperity.” The Mong attend the Gau Tao festival to have fun and strengthen their community through folk singing, dancing, and games. In recent years Ha Giang province has organized the …

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