A chief coach of the Vietnam’s national athletics team was Friday sacked after being accused of committing sexual harassment against a young female athlete in his training camp early this month. This becomes the first-ever case in Vietnam's sports announced.

Both the coach Nguyen Tuan Anh and the athlete Truong Thanh Hang were working in the National Sports Training Center No. 3 in the central Da Nang City. Hang is a runner on the 800m and 1,500m tracks. Now, she is under special training to recover from traffic injuries.

According to the report of Hang to the center authorities and local media, she was harassed several times by the coach on June 5-7 when she was sleeping in her room in the center.

“In the early morning of June 5, coach Tuan Anh suddenly appeared in my room when I was sleeping. He entered my room with a reason of checking as my room was not locked,” Hang – who is sharing her room with her teammate Thanh Thuy -- recalled.

“He approached me and massaged my body. Soon after that, he attempted to pull down my blanket and I sat up to protest and he left.

“At 5:00am in the early morning of June 7, Tuan Anh entered my room when Thuy was out for training. He massaged my back, attempted to put his hand under my shirt, saying he ordered all others out for training and no one would know this.

“I sat up, rushed to the restroom and sent an SMS message to my teammate for help. Then he left,” Hang said.

Hang added that she reported the whole story in the following day to Mr. Le Hong Son, deputy director of the center.

On June 12, Son convened a meeting with me, the coach and his wife taking part in.

“Tuan Anh offered me his apology,” Hang said.

Though being sacked from taking charge of the training job, Tuan Anh still remains working for the center as the deputy head of the sports medicine department of the center.