Vietnam, offering cash and land awards to its taekwondo athletes, targets three medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, according to local newspaper Labor on Friday.

"The three (taekwondo) athletes are ready. Nguyen Van Hung's foot injury has fully recovered. The whole team wants to gain medals, three, not one," said Truong Ngoc De, general secretary of the Vietnam Taekwondo Association.

The People's Committee of central Thanh Hoa province, the native place of Nguyen Van Hung, has decided to offer him a plot of land worth around 550 million Vietnamese dong (32,900 US dollars). Hung is the first athlete born in Thanh Hoa to get land award from the provincial authorities.

The association has promised to offer 30,000 dollars, 20,000 dollars and 10,000 dollars, respectively, to those who win a gold, silver or bronze medal at the ongoing Olympic Games. Local woman taekwondo Tran Thi Ngoc Truc will start competition first, on Aug. 20, followed by Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu and Nguyen Van Hung.

On Aug. 10, Vietnamese weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan grabbed a silver medal in the men's 56kg category at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Vietnam's first medal at the world's biggest sports event.

Vietnam participated in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1980, and won its first Olympic medal, a silver one, in 2000 with the merit of woman taekwondo player Tran Hieu Ngan in the 57kg weight category.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)