The Vietnamese delegation will compete in 16 sports on August 21, the third official day of the 2018 Asian Games (Asiad), with Nguyen Thi Anh Vien (swimming), Hoang Xuan Vinh (shooting), and Duong Thuy Vi (wushu) expected to bring home the first gold medal for Vietnam in Indonesia.
The Vietnamese delegation will compete in 16 sports on August 21, the third official day of the 2018 Asian Games (Asiad), with Nguyen Thi Anh Vien (swimming), Hoang Xuan Vinh (shooting), and Duong Thuy Vi (wushu) expected to bring home the first gold medal for Vietnam in Indonesia.
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| Swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien (in the lead) is one of Vietnam's golden hopes in this year's Asian Games. |
Anh Vien, the no. 1 female swimmer in Southeast Asia, will commence her Asiad campaign with the 400m individual medley event, in which she was crowned the bronze medalist at the 2014 Asiad in the Republic of Korea. Vien has set a target of changing the medal colour and vying for the top honour this year. The preliminary round and finals will take place at 9am and 6.30pm, respectively.
The 400m individual medley is one of Vien’s favourite events, which saw her top the Asian podium in Tokyo two years ago, win a silver medal in the Moscow stage of the FINA World Cup 2015, and blast another bronze in the Paris stage of the same tournament. The best time of the Can Tho-born swimmer in this discipline is 4:36.85, which was set at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Top Vietnamese shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh participates in the men’s 10m air pistol qualification at 9am. The Quang Tri-born marksman is expected to repeat the miracle made in this favourite event at the Rio Olympics two years ago, as excelled beyond expectations to claim a historic gold medal for Vietnam with a record score of 202.5 points.
Wushu artists Duong Thuy Vi and Pham Quoc Khanh are also expected to add more medals to Vietnam’s Asiad collection today. Thuy Vi is temporarily sharing second place with Iran’s Zahra Kiani in the women’s Jianshu event on August 19 (9.7 points), behind the Chinese leader (9.75 points). The Qiangshu results today will decide the medalists of the women’s Jianshu and Qiangshu all-around.
After the men’s nanquan competition on August 20, Quoc Khanh is standing in second position with 9.71 points, 0.04 point far from China’s Li Jingde. The results of the nangun event today will decide the overall results of the men’s nanquan and nangun all-around.
Another anticipated event today is the last Group C match between Vietnam and Japan in the women’s football, which is scheduled to take place at JSC Gelora Swijijaya Stadium at 3pm. Mai Duc Chung’s Vietnam have already qualified for the quarterfinals following their convincing 3-2 victory over Thailand on August 19.
(Source:Nhan Dan)
