The nine members are selected from Military Region 1 and 2, the Commando Corps, Artillery Corps, and Army Officer Training School 1. They fought stiff off 21 other excellent peers from eight units in the whole military.
The team started practicing for the games in early March. In this intensive training session, the coach will take notes of each member’s progress to develop suitable changes to improve their training results.
This year’s Meridian contest include three contents, including Azimuth, Shooting, and Topographic Quadrathlon. The Shooting content is newly added to replace a content of the contest. This is really a challenge for the Vietnamese team since the time for shooting practice is not long.
However, according to Major Nguyen Van Minh, a shooting instructor, what they are focusing on now is honing the most basic shooting skills and ability to hit the targets accurately to avoid getting minus points. Minh added that this year, each fault will cost 12 times higher than last year.
The whole team is striving to achieve the same shooting result of the previous games after one month of intensive training.
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Athletes are racing against time with high determination. |
Observing a training day of the team, Major General Hoang Minh Ngoc, Director of the Department of Cartography under the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army assessed that the training quality for the team is higher than that in previous year. The athletes have broken their own achievements gained in the previous day. This is a motivation for them to stabilize their mentality and heighten determination to compete.
According to Gen. Ngoc, this year’s goal of the Department of Cartography’s Party Committee, chain-of-command, and the Meridian team is to achieve higher results or at least bring home a bronze medal like the team did last year.
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Practicing the “Topographic Quadrathlon” content |
Senior Colonel Do Ngoc Thanh, a coach of the team, shared that this year’s contest is hosted by Kazakhstan with peneplain terrains and hot deserts; therefore, Vietnamese athletes have to practice in different terrains and be equipped with knowledge of angles and distances so that they could feel confident in the competition.
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Major General Hoang Minh Ngoc, Director of the Department of Cartography encourages the team. |
For Captain Le Huu Khanh, a team member from the Commando Corps, who contributed to the bronze medal of the team in the Army Games 2021, with experience gained during the training session and thorough grasping of the contest’s regulations, all members of the team will bring into play their own capability and show high resolve to achieve highest possible results.
With good fitness, high sense of practice and aspiration for a victory, the team hopes to achieve its set target. As planned, the Meridian team will head for Kazakhstan on August 5.
Translated by Mai Huong