Cuong and his team-mates receive the gold medal at Sea Games 24 in Thailand. The national archery team does physical exercises. Cuong and his coach Cap Manh Tan and team-mates analyse the preciseness after the shooting exercise. Preparing his belongs before each trip for competition. After 12 years of competition involving three generations of archers, Vietnam’s national flag has finally been hoisted over the shooting range at the medal presentation ceremony. The archer who has been awarded the title “A hundred shots, a hundred bulls’ eyes” of Vietnamese archery is Nguyen Tien Cuong, a 21-year-old Hanoian. His medal collection consists of Asian and Southeast Asian gold medals. Born in 1988, Cuong became familiar with the 3-string bow in 2003 when Vietnam began to partaking in this sport. Participating in SEA Games 19, 20 and 22 the Vietnamese archers walked away without any awards, but at SEA Games 24 they enjoyed their first triumph when the 3-string bow team won a gold medal. Nguyen Tien Cuong made a great contribution to this achievement with his remarkable marksmanship. At the Asian Archery Championship 2008 held in Thailand, Cuong and the Vietnamese team bagged two gold medals and later they regained the victory at the Southeast Asian Archery Championship. At national competitions Cuong has obtained many national records, winning five gold medals in the individual category and one gold medal in the team category. Talking about Nguyen Tien Cuong, coach Cap Manh Tan said: “Cuong is an archer with excellent physical strength and techniques. Now the gap between him and his peers runners-up at home is fairly wide.” In the 1st round of the Asian Archery Championship held in Thailand earlier this year, Cuong defeated his rivals and won a gold medal in the 70m category of the 3-string bow event. This achievement is a good sign of things to come at tournaments in 2009. With his powerful body, Cuong can easily and precisely manage the bow and arrows weighing 28kg. He practices with an expensive bow which is thinner but heavier than the normal types. This type of bow can propel an arrow very fast and with great precision, but isn't easy to handle. The bow is also used for splitting arrows, the trick when the archer uses an arrow to make a direct hit on the rear of the arrow previously shot, thereby splitting it.  Currently Cuong is preparing for the next round of the Asian Archery Championship and other great sports events this year, such as the Asian Indoor Games 3 and SEA Games 25. He is looking forward to many new challenges and achievements. Nguyen Tien Cuong (first, left) and his team-mates in the national three-string bow team. Story by Hoang Ha - Photos by Hoang Ha, Nam Suong & Files