Lê Tú Chinh SEA Games 2017-2019 Champion

Le Tu Chinh not satisfied with 200m Win

Chinh won her 5th Gold Medal at the Vietnam Open. But she was far from happy with her time of 23.63, burstings into tears after the race.

The 23-year-old was the 2015 SEA Games 200m Champion. However, she stated that a better schedule would have allowed her to be better rested for the 200m.

She was not satisfied with her performance and will aim to do better next time.

Chinh was unchallenged, winning the 200m by nearly a whole second.

 

Chinh dominates a new young field of Vietnamese Sprinters

Lê Tú Chinh once again proved herself as the best Female Sprinter in Vietnam.

The 23-year-old Lê Tú Chinh is the 2017 SEA Games 100 and 200 Champion.

And SEA Games 2019 SEA Games Champion.

Sped to win the final (10 November) of the Vietnam National SEA Games Trials in Hanoi.

Clocking 11.43, her second-best ever time. And set Chinh’s PB of 11.40 towards the end of 2018. Chinh clocked 11.58 to lead the qualifiers of the heats, winning heat 1.

The National record of Vietnam is held by 4x SEA Games 100m Champion Vu Thi Huong of 11.34 at the 2009 SEA Games.

Le Tu Chinh’s time of 11.43 was faster than her 11.54 winning time at the 2019 SEA Games.

 

Lê Tú Chinh vs Kristina Knott

 

But if Lê Tú Chinh wants to defend her title on home ground at the 2021 SEA Games, it will be hard against Kristina Knott of the Philippines, who broke the SEA Record with an 11.27-run Drake 2 months ago.

Chinh and Knott will square up at the same oval in Hanoi just over a year from now.

Next year, Chinh will need to break into the 11.30 range if she wants any chance against Knott, who took her SEA Games 200m title at New Clark.

 

A New Batch Coming Through

 

The interesting thing to note was that 7 Vietnamese women broke 12 seconds in the heats and finals of the National SEA Games Trials, and the slowest in the final ran 12.00.

The interesting thing to note is half of these 8 women are born from 2001 to 2004. Chinh held off Hà Thị Thu 11.72.

But interesting was newcomer Phùng Thị Huệ who clocked 11.78 is born in 2003. So doing Thi Hoa, born in 2004, ran 11.98. 

This gives Vietnam substantial depth in their 4×100 Women’s team as Vietnam took Gold in 2017 and Bronze in the 2019 SEA Games.

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The Challenge of Sprinter Le Tu Chinh

Article by Andrew Pirie – ATFS Statistician for the Philippines, Co-Founder of Pinoyathletics, Level 2 Athletics Australia Sprint Coach, Former Philippines Sports Consultant, and Former Head Coach of Track and Field at the Zamboanga Sports Academy.

Translation of Interview by Mr. Vinh Khang.

With SEA Games 100m Champion Sprinter Le Tu Chinh of Vietnam

and her coach Ms. Huong Nguyen of Ho Chi Minh Athletics.

I was given a chance to Interview SEA Games Sprint Queen Le Tu Chinh with her long-time coach Huong Nguyen.

This was especially a challenge as neither spoke English, and I do not know Vietnamese.

Hence, a friend, Mr. Vinh Khang, kindly volunteered to be the closed ZOOM Meeting translator.

8 Questions were asked, which led to broader questions I had prepared myself from Research, plus a further 3 questions came from a Malaysian and Australian coach.

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Give a Chinh a Chance

Nguyen had coached Le Tu Chinh from the Age of 10. She was working for Ho Chi Minh, and they went around schools looking for athletes.

Huong had met Chinh when she was in 5^th Grade in District 8.

“Chinh was very little and thin when I first saw her”. Said Huong.

She had not identified anything special about her as an athlete at that point. Chinh had lost her mother at an early age and was from a low-income family.

Huong just wanted to give the young girl a chance at a better life through sport. Nguyen was more than just a Huong coach in the years that followed but played a surrogate mother’s role.

 

Le Tu Chinh Strengths and Weaknesses

What makes Chinh a strong athlete is she always tries her best in training and competition. She always completes all her training. And does not make excuses. She always sets and has a clear view of her goals. She tries harder to reach her goals.

Chinh’s weaknesses are her technique is not yet fully developed, but together we work on it day to improve that aspect of being an athlete.

She also sometimes gets very emotional during bigger meets, such as the Asian Champs and Asian Games, which can be overwhelming for her at times.

But during meets, she usually rises to the occasion and does her best against every athlete she faces regardless of who she is up against.

 

“She shows a coal face and fires up when she needs to”. Huong expressed which is basically Chinh’s concentrated expression when she puts herself in the zone of just focussing which all sprinters know about.

 

As Vietnam’s fastest woman, Chinh has a male sprinter as a pacer to help challenge her in training to reach that next level.

We have been working on Chinh’s strengths, which is also something she needed to work on. Her power clean is 80kg. (Melissa Breen of Australia, who timed 11.12, had an 85-90kg power clean).

 

Loren Seagrave

Although Le Tu Chinh has only ever been coached by Huong since she started.

Huong and Le Tu Chinh had the opportunity to work with one of the world’s best sprint coaches, American, Mr. Loren Seagrave.

Loren has worked with several Olympic and world gold medallists. Before Loren was with the IMG Sports Academy in Florida, United States. Chinh and Huong were able to gain valuable experience working with the veteran coach.

 

“It was an unforgettable experience working with Loren one that we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

The Training system is very different from what we were doing in Ho Chi Minh City. Modern training methods, good healthcare for athlete recovery, and lots of resources equipment that can be used.” – said Huong.

 

Scientific Training

“We don’t do much of that as we don’t have that type of equipment available in Vietnam. Such as high speed treadmills etc.”

 

They did use an Overspeed cord, which is one person pulling and being pulled. Vietnam has that and speed sleds.

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The Road to the SEA Games Championship

Chinh’s first international meet was the  2014 SEA Youth in Myanmar, where she took bronze in 200m.

Later that year, in the 2014 ASEAN School Games in Marikina. I, the author, remember this meeting well as I selected and managed the Philippines Athletics team at this event.

I didn’t know who Chinh was at the time. Chinh took the bronze medal in the 200m Dash. At the same time, another Vietnamese Ha Thi Thu won the 100m Dash. Chinh, at this stage, was not even the best junior in Vietnam.

In 2015 Chinh took the Gold medal in the 100 and 200-meter dash at the ASEAN School Games in Brunei.

Then 18 Chinh established herself as not just Vietnam’s top Junior sprinter but began to fill the void left after the 4x SEA Games Champion Vu Thi Huong’s retirement.

The Vietnamese had not medaled in Singapore’s 2015 SEA Games in the 100m Dash and had only taken 200m.

In 2016 Chinh’s home city Ho Chi Minh hosted the Asian Junior Championships.

It was a huge breakthrough year for Chinh after a disappointing 4^th in the 100m at these games.

She somehow managed to crown herself the Asian Junior Champion in the 200m defeating the powerhouse athletes from China and Japan.

This win spurred Chinh finally became SEA Games Champion in 2017 at her first SEA Games, winning the 100 and 200m Dash in Kuala Lumpur.

And ran Chinh’s best times at the age of 20-21 because she had injuries around 2018-2019 that she had to get around.

 

Kristina Marie Knott

 

In the 2019 SEA Games, Chinh was well beaten in the 200 Meter Dash by American-born sprinter Kristina Knott who represented the Philippines. However, Knott went on to break the SEA Record with a 23.01 clocking. Moreover, Knott did so in front of a 3000-strong home crowd at the world-class New Clark City, Philippines.

In what to most would be a psychological blow to most, Chinh, who had been the reigning champion coming into these games, was forced to regather her thoughts and composure. In what was a huge morale blow after finishing so far behind Knott in the 200m. Some 3-4 meters behind, in fact. Was hurting psychologically from the shock loss.

What lay ahead in defending her 100 meters titles in the day to come would be an uphill battle of the mind. In the 100-meter heats, Chinh opened with a season-best of 11.61 to win the first heat. But Kristina Knott bulldozed the second heat in 11.45 (just .03 off her best time at the Asian Grand Prix earlier in the year). After that, it seemed like Knott had the 100m in the bag as well.

 

The final came the next day, and huge anticipation was on Knott having won the SEA Games 200m title.

However, Chinh was out like a rocket putting almost 3 meters on Knott by the halfway mark in the final. Knott was forced to work hard as she started to reel Chinh in. Knott fought hard and almost caught Chinh on the line. But Chinh’s arm went over the line first, and a teary-eyed Chinh retained her SEA Games 100m title.

The author watched near the finish line as an emotional Chinh in tears ran over to embrace Huong’s coach.

When asked about Knott. Chinh smiled and couldn’t stop giggling.

 

“She is a very powerful athlete who trains (went to college) in the best track country in the world America. It’s great to have a strong opponent like that at the SEA Games cause she keeps us from slacking off in training and we work very hard to get better.”

 

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Le Tu Chinh Goals and Objectives

Chinh has not yet competed at the world or Olympic level. The first goal in 2021 is to win the 100 and 200m titles when Vietnam will host the SEA Games.

Of course, we would like to do better at the Asian/Asian Games  Level (where Chinh has made the finals).

The Olympics is very tough (100m 11.15, 200m 22.80 standards). Chinh’s bests are 11.40 and 23.2. So we will do our best, but we can’t guarantee anything regarding that.

 

Le Tu Chinh facing COVID

While most countries have been strongly affected by COVID, Vietnam was lucky enough to have no deaths and few cases, which only lasted a few months.

 

“We kept training normally through COVID and we did not let it disrupt our program at all. Every day is important as we the Vietnamese people will be depending on us as the Pride of Vietnam to deliver at the 2021 SEA Games”

 

COVID did prevent us from having any competitions this year. Chinh ran at the speedy cup 60m (7.40, which converts to 11.5). 11.55 in the 100m. Although that’s similar to her SEA Games time of 11.54, we are unhappy that we wanted an 11.40 PB from 2018.

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Le Tu Chinh Profile

Date of Birth: 4 July 1997

Coach: Huong Nguyen since age 9

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Progression 100M

	Performance	Wind	Place	Date
2019	11.54	-0.5	New Clark City (PHI)	08 DEC 2019
2018	11.62	+1.9	Clermont, FL (USA)	28 APR 2018
2017	11.47	+0.2	Bangkok (THA)	12 JUN 2017
2016	11.80	+0.1	Ho Chi-Minh (VIE)	29 JUL 2016
2015	12.61	-0.9	Wuhan (CHN)	03 JUN 2015
2014	12.00		Hanoi (VIE)	12 AUG 2014

Progression 200m

Titles

• SEA Youth Championships 200M Bronze 2014
• ASEAN School Games 100M & 200M Champion 2015
• Asian Junior Champion 200m 2016
• SEA Games 100m Champion 2017
• 200m Champion 2017
• SEA Games 100m Champion 2019

 

Le Tu Chinh 

SEA Games 2017 and 2019 100m Women’s Champion Le Tu Chinh,23, opened her season with a win in the 60 meters at the Speedy Cup in Ho Chi Minh City.

Chinh clocked 7.40 secs, just .04 off her PB set in 2017. 

Vu Thi Huong, 4x Former SEA Games champion, holds the SEA Record and Vietnam National Record at 7.24 secs.

Chinh beat relay teammate Ha Thi Thu clocked 7.61 secs, with newcomers Bui Thi Nguyen and Nguyen Van also impressive in the Junior Division.

She did not have to run the heat and went straight to the final as her coach Huong Nguyen. Chinh will run the 100 and 200m at this event in the next few days.

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Day 2 Report

Le Tu Chinh continued her fine form with a time of 11.55.  Chinh PB from 2018 is 11.40. She was the 2017 and 2019 SEA Games Champion. The time is a good opening showing the almost identical form to the 11.54 she registered at the SEA Games. In what was pretty much a solo run, Chinh won over national teammate Ha Thi Thu who registered 12.10. 

Earlier I had predicted based on her 7.40 run Yesterday; Le Tu Chinh would run 11.50-11.60. I knew this as I ran almost identical 60 and 100m times to her when I was 15.

Considering the Olympic Standard for 100m is 11.15, and the 200m is 22.80. So the 200m seems more likely. Providing she gets into a good race leading up to it. Chinh will run the 200m next in this meet.

“We are working towards it” said Huong Nguyen who has coached Chinh since she was 9 years old.

Chinh From the Beach to the Track

 

Meanwhile, in the Women’s 2016 Asian Beach Games, Champion Le Tu Chinh of Vietnam continued her wonderful season, a consistent top-three placer in the 100m Dash during the

Asian Grand Prix series in China for a few months. The 20-year-old Chinh improved her mark from 11.67 to 11.47 to win the Thai Open. Chinh win takes the season lead for the 100m Women’s.

Second, Malaysia’s Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, this time with a legitimate PB of 11.65, broke her time of 11.67 from Kosanov last year. Zulkifli’s mark is #2 in SEA this year in this event. Zulkifli ran faster, but both times were disallowed, and 11.36 (2.5) in Pretoria and 11.45 in South Africa were also disallowed.

SEA Games Silver medalist Tassaporn Wanakit was third, improving her Seasons Best from 11.88 to 11.83.

Defending SEA Games Champion Kayla Richardson (Philippines), who has been running 400s, is still yet to register a 100m time this year. But will defend her title.

It will be an interesting Women’s 100 Final in Kuala Lumpur in a few months as 3 women, including Zion Corrales-Nelson of the Philippines, have all run below the winning time of the 2015 SEA Games at 11.76.

Sources: Jad Adrian Washif (www.adriansprints.com)

 

Women’s 60m Chinh Wedged in between Two Kazakhs.

 

Le Tu Chinh of Vietnam SEA Games Champion in 100m and 200m was also the surprise Asian Beach Games winner last year in 60m. Wound up second in the 100m.

Le Tu Chinh came into the competition with a 7.41 PB and reduced that to 7.39 in the Heats clocking the fastest qualifying time and then 7.36 in the Finals. And the Games record belongs to her fellow Vietnamese 4 times SEA Games Champion Vu Thi Huong with 7.24.

A good run for Le Tu Chinh as she was up against the 2017 Asian 100m Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalists. The win went to Zyabkina of Kazakhstan in 7.32, with Chinh beating out Safronova (Kazakh) and Dutee Chand. This now shows a lot of promise for the 20-year-old Chinh at the Asian Level.

For More Updates on the Philippine Team, Check Here.

 

Chinh Chinh Chinh blasts out 11.40 (-1.2) to take SEA lead women’s 100m Dash

2017 SEA Games 100 and 200M Champion Le Tu Chinh. Set aside a rather cumbersome effort at the Asian Games in 2018.

And helped herself to the season lead in the Women’s 100m Dash for South-East Asia. The previous leader was Kristina Knott of the Philippines, who led 11.50 since the beginning of the year.

The 21-year-old Lê Tú Chinh time was also a personal best of 11.40 (at the Conference Champs at Hanoi on November 27. Even more impressive was it ran into a -1.2 headwind.

This improved on her 11.47 (0.2) time at the Thailand National Open in July 2017.  The Top 5 Girls in this race were under 12 seconds, with Nguyen Oanh also doing a PB of 11.78 to land the silver.

The mark is just outside the national record of 11.34 held by 4x SEA Games Vu Thi Huong set in the 2009 SEA Games.

Bouncing back from her rather sluggish 11.70 effort at the Asian Games, she was eliminated from the Semi-Finals a few months ago. Le Tu Chinh looked rather overweight and cumbersome at the time. In contrast, her low knee lift, long strides, and high turn oversaw a completely different athlete.

It will surely give her confidence in defending her SEA Games 100m title next year in the Philippines.

Huong Nguyen has coached Chinh since she was 10 years old. Also was mentored by American Guru Coach Loren Seagrave. 

Chinh will contest the 200 meters tomorrow at the Conference champs, where she is looking to improve on her 23.32 Personal best time. Vu Thi Huong also holds the National record with 23.27.

 

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