The Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) will provide Vietnam with VND321 million (US$15,400) to send a coach and two track cyclists to a two-month training program in South Korea to prepare for Asiad Incheon 2014.
The aid package is part of a bigger program to build the US$500 million My Dinh velodrome in Hanoi to prepare for Asiad Hanoi in 2019.
At the press conference held yesterday in Hanoi to announce the sponsorship, Lam Quang Thanh – vice head of the Vietnam General Department of Sports and Physical Training – said the two cyclists who will train at the KSPO velodrome are Le Anh Dung, 21, and Nguyen Van Cuong, 20. The coach is Tran Van Hai, 24.
The trio will arrive in South Korea on September 2.
A Korean representative said that he expects that betting on track cycling will soon be legalized in Vietnam, as it can help earn big income from taxes and would create around 3,000 new jobs. Sports betting is legal in 130 nations, he added.
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks, or velodromes. A modern one features steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights.