Sport in brief 25/1

The southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau is expected to host 2,000 competitors, coaches and referees at the World Youth Chess Championship next September.
Setup for the tournament comes with a bill of about US$800,000, half of which will be split between the Viet Nam Committee of Sports and Physical Culture and the Viet Nam Chess Federation, while the World Chess Federation (FIDE) stated it would locate donors to make up the rest.
FIDE will also assist organisers by providing the necessary equipment and technical experts.
Server Hieu booted from squad
The national sepak takraw men's team was summoned early this month to begin training, but without server Nguyen Trung Hieu.
Hieu, who used to be considered a top player, has lost his touch recently, and had a disappointing performance at the Asian Games in Doha last December. Some of his coaches cite his priority with academia as the reason for his sub-par play.
Hieu's teammate Pham Viet Thanh is also off the team.
At present, the team consists of 14 members - most of whom are young players with little to no international experiences. They will represent Vietnam in the world championship, the King's Cup, and December's 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
Student tourney to kick off
The widely popular National Student Football Championship, which sees the largest number of young talents coming out to play, will be held nationwide in early February.
The organising board divided 100 football teams into eight groups playing in Hanoi, Hai Phong, HCM City, Thai Nguyen, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Binh Duong and Can Tho. The qualifying round will run from February to mid-March.
The 12 teams who secure the most wins will enter the final round in Hanoi from March 26 to April 5. The championship is held under the Viet Nam Student Association, the Viet Nam Fund for Young Talent and the Viet Nam Football Federation.
Long helps VN in Greatest Race
Vietnam remain in third place among Southeast Asian nations after runner Nguyen Van Long finished the third leg of the Greatest Race on Earth in Mumbai, India, on Sunday.
Long, the youngest member of the Vietnam team, completed the race after 2 hours and 48.43 minutes to rank 18 out of 29 competitors after an injury slotted him down 13km from the finish line.
With Long's result, Vietnam are still behind Indonesia and Thailand in the Southeast Asian region and rank 15 of 26 national teams.
The leg's winner was Vincent Kiplagat from Kenya, who finished in 2:15.08.
Long's teammate Hoang Van Bau will complete the Vietnamese quartet in the men's national team category in Hong Kong on March 4.
Two other members, Nguyen Chi Dong and Nguyen Dang Duc Bao, competed in the two previous legs in Nairobi and Singapore.
The total prize pool of Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth 2006-07 offers US$1.5mil, one of the largest prizes in the world of athletics.
In last year's Greatest Race on Earth, Vietnam took third place in the region and earned $2,500.
New football awards launched
The Bong Da (Football) newspaper launched awards of Best Coach, Best Male Player and Best Female Player to honour footballers and coaches for their contributions to the sport.
The organisers listed six coaches, 10 male and five female players for the awards. The coach and male football winner will receive a bonus of VND25mil (US$1,500), while the female footballer will earn VND20,000 ($1,200). Apart from professional skills, the nominees must have made significant contribution to their respective national teams.
The winners will be selected based on the text message votes from fans, who can send their pick by dialing 8278.
The deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Vu Manh Hai said he intends to make the awards an annual event.

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