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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