Two athletes of the Vietnamese national fencing team got into a fight with swords over a personal dispute during a recent training session, a member of the team’s coaching board told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.

The altercation broke out between 25-year-old fencer Nguyen Van Quyet and 2016 Olympics participant Vu Thanh An, 30, during a practice at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center on September 23, the coaching member said.

Elaborating on the case, An told Tuoi Tre on Monday that the two men had just finished practicing, with Quyet defeated, at that time.

Quyet then showed a bad attitude which angered An.

The senior athlete failed to control his rage and used a training saber to hit Quyet. The younger man then took off his mask and insulted him.

“I was wearing gloves and punched Quyet,” An said.

“Quyet punched me back, making me dizzy.

“The two sides then clashed with swords.”

An said his eyes and forehead were completely bruised after the fight.

While An said the gloves saved him from causing severe injuries to Quyet, the 25-year-old complained in writing to the police and the Department of Culture and Sports of Hanoi that the confrontation with the former sent him to hospital.

Quyet demanded police officers launch an investigation into the case in accordance with the law.

At the same time, Pham Anh Tuan, head coach of Hanoi’s fencing team, which manages Quyet and An administratively, made the two men submit their personal written accounts of the incident.

An is a star of Vietnamese fencing, having won six Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medals and competing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he was defeated in the round of 16 in the men’s saber competition.

At the latest SEA Games in Vietnam in May this year, An, Quyet, and their teammates won the team saber gold medal for the host.

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