Women’s volleyball team cherished by Vietnamese community in France

The Vietnamese women’s volleyball team arrive in Paris on July 25 for the Challenger Cup 2023 and received warm welcome from the Vietnamese community in the European country. (Photo: VNA)

Paris - The Vietnamese women’s volleyball team arrived in Paris on July 25 for the Challenger Cup 2023 and received warm welcome from the Vietnamese community in the European country.

This is the first time in history that Vietnam has advanced to a world-class volleyball tournament after becoming the champion of the Asian Challenger Volleyball Cup.

Speaking at a welcome ceremony for the team at the Vietnamese Embassy’s headquarters, Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO, complemented their achievements.

In only nearly three years, the team has won the Asian championship twice at both club and national scales, and for the first time gained berths at prestigious world tournaments, contributing to putting Vietnam on the world women's volleyball map, she noted.

“You are the pride of Vietnamese and Asian sports, and the representatives of the Vietnamese youth and women who are confident to integrate into the world and reach global stature after six decades since Vietnam joined the first international tournament, the Games of the New Emerging Forces in Indonesia in 1963,” she stated.

She said she hopes that the team will show their best performance at the Challenger Cup 2023, which takes place from July 27-31.

The ambassador said that one month ago, at the seventh International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS) in Azerbaijan, participants committed to strengthening sports cooperation, investing more in the youth and promoting gender equality in sports for sustainable development. The participation of Vietnam at the tournament is a vivid manifestation of Vietnam’s implementation of the commitment, she said.

After the ceremony, the team left for Laval, the venue of the Challenger Cup 2023. They will play France at 22:30 on July 27. If winning this match, Vietnam will have a chance to advance to the semifinal round on July 30.

The Challenger Cup 2023 will see the competition of eight teams from different continents, namely Colombia, Mexico, France, Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Kenya and Vietnam. The final match of the tournament will take place on July 31.

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