Nguyen Huy Hoang Targets Gold at 2026 National Sports Games

Vietnamese swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang enters the 10th National Sports Games as the focal point of Quang Tri Province’s medal ambitions, carrying the responsibility of securing the delegation’s most prized gold medals in the pool, it was reported.

Quang Tri Delegation Targets Twenty-Nine Medals Across Twelve Sports

The sports delegation from Quang Tri has set a target of 5 gold, 5 silver, and 19 bronze medals for this year’s National Sports Games. A total of 98 delegates will represent the province across 12 different disciplines, including boxing, swimming, athletics, canoeing, petanque, karate, badminton, rowing, diving, weightlifting, wrestling, and mixed martial arts. Among these, swimming and rowing carry the highest expectations for podium finishes.

Heavy Program Awaits Competitors in Ho Chi Minh City

Swimming events at the 2026 National Sports Games comprise 41 distinct medal competitions. The program features 20 events for men—split into 17 individual races and 3 relays—alongside an identical 20 events for women and one mixed gender relay. Nguyen Huy Hoang maintains his primary focus on the 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle events. The Quang Tri coaching staff constructed a specialized preparation strategy to preserve his competitive edge across these four distances.

Competition Landscape and International Experience

At 26 years old, Nguyen Huy Hoang is the oldest swimmer in the training selection of the national team. He acknowledges that strong challenges will come from younger athletes representing major regional units such as Da Nang, the military, and Ho Chi Minh City. His domestic dominance is underlined by his past performances at the 9th National Sports Games in 2022, where he claimed gold in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 15:18.32 and the 800m freestyle in 7:56.49. On the international stage last year, he secured the 1500m freestyle gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games with a time of 15:19.58, following appearances at the 20th Asian Games where he finished fourth in the 400m freestyle at 3:48.86 and seventh in the 800m freestyle at 7:57.39.

Phu Tho Pool Schedule and Technical Meetings

Swimming competitions are scheduled to run from November 19 to November 26 at the Phu Tho Swimming and Diving Club located in Ho Chi Minh City. Participating teams will complete their official registrations during the technical meeting held on November 19.