From February 13, the 26th day of the lunar month, athletes were allowed to return home for Tet after a year of training and competition. Yet discipline remains central. Coaches have required athletes to continue tailored fitness programmes to maintain physical condition and technical readiness.
For athletics, where endurance and consistency are critical, coaching staff have designed individualised plans for each competitor. Athletes must complete a training session every two days, running between 10 and 18 kilometres in their local areas while selecting safe routes. Training loads are monitored remotely through tracking devices.
Huỳnh Minh Hiếu, coach of the Gia Lai athletics team at the Provincial Center for Sports Training and Competition, said the schedule could not be relaxed with key events approaching.
“In early March, our athletes will compete in the National Marathon and long-distance championships, so we cannot let the holiday break affect the team’s overall performance,” he said. The squad will regroup on the evening of February 21, the fifth day of Tet, and resume regular training the following day.
For Trần Trung Kiên of Hoàng Anh Gia Lai Football Club, the brief holiday offered a chance to stay close to home in Pleiku rather than travel. He maintains a daily running routine of five to 10 kilometres before helping his family prepare for the celebrations.
The club enters the new year in a more secure position after two crucial victories over SHB Đà Nẵng and Ninh Bình lifted the Mountain Town side to eighth place, seven points clear of the bottom-ranked team. Trung Kiên said he hopes the year ahead will bring further success for the club and an opportunity to contribute to the national team.
Twin sisters Nguyễn Thị Mai and Nguyễn Thị Loan experienced an even shorter break. After concluding their campaign at the 33rd SEA Games, both were called up to the national team at the end of January. They returned home to Thống Nhất hamlet in Ia Krêl commune on February 14 but will depart again on the second day of Tet to prepare for a ranking tournament scheduled for March 2026.
With just over three days at home, the sisters devoted their time to family traditions, from cleaning and decorating to making bánh chưng and bánh tét. Despite the celebrations, they continued regular training to maintain fitness and control their competition weight class.
“Because our time at home is so limited, we treasure every minute with our family,” Mai said, adding that maintaining form during Tet allows them to return to training without losing momentum.
Elsewhere, athletes from the Bình Định Traditional Martial Arts Center balanced performance commitments with competitive preparation. Members of the centre’s performance team trained intensively for the artistic programme “Gia Lai Celebrates the Party and the Year of the Horse,” marking the 255th anniversary of the Tây Sơn peasant uprising (1771–2026) and the 237th anniversary of the Ngọc Hồi–Đống Đa Victory (1789–2026).
Combat athletes also maintained training to stay sharp ahead of the Bình Định Martial Arts Night events at Nguyễn Tất Thành Square in Quy Nhơn ward and Tây Sơn commune square during the early days of the new year.
Trần Duy Linh, Director of the Bình Định Traditional Martial Arts Center, said the first major competition after Tet would be the National Strong Teams Kickboxing Championship in Hanoi in early April. Athletes will return to intensive training immediately after the holiday, aiming to deliver strong results at the national tournament.
