At the 32nd SEA Games, Tran Mai Ngoc and Dinh Anh Hoang made history in Vietnamese table tennis when they brought home the gold medal after a 26-year wait. In particular, female tennis player Mai Ngoc received a lot of attention because her age and career are still very young.
Returning from the Southeast Asian arena, Mai Ngoc continued to impress when she and her senior Nguyen Thi Nga won the gold medal in the women's team event, the bronze medal in the men's and women's doubles event with Dinh Anh Hoang at the 2023 National Table Tennis Championship.
In 2024, the duo Mai Ngoc - Nguyen Thi Nga once again overcame a very strong opponent, Mai Hoang My Trang - Phan Hoang Tuong Giang (HCMC) to successfully defend their national championship title. In addition, in the mixed doubles event, Tran Mai Ngoc and Dinh Anh Hoang won another silver medal.
Compared to the previous 2 tournaments, when Mai Ngoc was more mature, fans expected her to change the color of the medals in some events, especially the women's singles event.
This requires the tennis player born in 2004 to make more efforts and be more brave when facing Vietnamese table tennis "monuments" such as My Trang or athlete Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh...
In fact, Tran Mai Ngoc did this at the 2021 national championship, which was then called a miracle. In the women's singles quarter-finals, the Binh Duong athlete excellently defeated My Trang, then passed the semi-finals to participate in the final.
In the decisive match, Mai Ngoc played impressively to win 4-0 against Kieu My, thereby bringing home a gold medal when she was only 17 years old.
However, since then, Mai Ngoc has not had another step on the highest podium in the women's singles event. Therefore, at this year's tournament, she received great expectations for a coronation of "monuments".
Before the tournament, the 32nd SEA Games champion and some teammates were sent to China for training to practice their expertise and competitive spirit. This is a stepping stone for Mai Ngoc to be more confident before entering the official competition.
Talking to Lao Dong, coach Vu Manh Cuong of the CAND-T&T team said: "In terms of health and expertise, according to the coach's assessment during the training trip, Mai Ngoc and Anh Hoang are relatively stable.
However, in reality, during the competition with continuous developments, athletes need to achieve the psychological drop point and the best state to be able to win gold medals.
Regarding the quota, at the 2025 national championship, we hope Mai Ngoc and Anh Hoang will win the gold medal in the men's and women's team, because both have won the SEA Games.
After the Congress, the two won the bronze medal in 2023 and the silver medal in 2024, so this year they hope to try to change the color of the medal for men's and women's doubles.
In addition, the coaching staff also hopes that the two athletes will develop their skills and techniques as in the recent training".
