Special report:   2008 Olympic Games 

    HANOI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is likely to win 20 berths in 13-14 sports events to Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, local newspaper Youth on Thursday quoted a local sports official as saying.

    The events include track-and-field, weight-lifting, swimming, springboard, shooting, badminton, apparatus gymnastics said Hoang Vinh Giang, vice president and general secretary of Vietnam's National Olympic Committee. Most outstanding local athletics and swimming athletes may be sent to China for intensive training in the coming time, he noted.

    Now, most prominent athletes include weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan, table tennis player Nguyen Tien Minh, springboard athlete Hoang Thanh Tra, three shooters Nguyen Manh Tuong, Nguyen Xuan Vinh and Pham Cao Son, sprinter Vu Thi Huong, two gymnasts Do Thi Ngan Thuong and Phan Ha Thanh, and swimmer Nguyen Huy Viet.

    To date, three Vietnamese athletes, all taekwondo fighters, named Nguyen Van Hung, Hoang Ha Giang and Nguyen Hoai Thu have secured places at the global games slated for August in Beijing.

    Vietnam won its first-ever Olympic medal with 26-year-old woman athlete Tran Hieu Ngan taking a taekwondo silver medal at Sydney Olympic Games 2000.