Olympics

HÀ NỘI — Vũ Thị Trang earned her first win at the Rio Olympics, defeating Lindaweni Fanetri in the women’s Group J badminton event on August 13.

Trang had an easier win than expected although her Indonesian rival was 17 positions higher in world rankings.

Trang set up her domination from the beginning of the game, in which she received strong support from her fiancé, senior teammate and temporary coach, Nguyễn Tiến Minh.

Trang, the world No 41 player, won 21-12 in the first set and 21-11 in the second.

Trang had to wait for the result between Fanetri and Japanese Nozomi Okuhara to know if she would advance to the next round.

In her first match on Friday, Trang lost 10-21, 8-21 to Okuhara, who was ranked world No 6.

Earlier in the morning of August 13, Tiến Minh secured his second match win in the Group E event, defeating Austrian David Obernosterer 21-18, 21-14.

Minh was confronted by some difficulties, as usual, in the first minutes of the game. But the former world No 5, under guidance of Trang on the sideline, quickly fought back and finished his match in high spirits.

Minh will play two-time champion Lin Dan of China today, in a match considered the final of the group.

Only the top-ranked athlete in each group will advance to the knock-out stage.

Lin pocketed two wins, as many as Minh, but ranked first due to his better results during his previous matches.

Vũ Thị Trang defeats Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia in the women’s Group J badminton event on August 13.— Photo vntinnhanh.vn

In other sports, runner Nguyễn Thị Huyền was disqualified from the women’s 400m event.

Huyền finished her race with a time of 52.97sec and ranked sixth out of eight athletes in her heat. She was number 43 among 57 competitors, in her overall ranking.

Her result was worse than her 52sec at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last June in Singapore.

She will take part in her second event, the 400m hurdle, on August 16.

On August 13, walker Nguyễn Thành Ngưng also stopped at the Games in the men’s 20km race.

Ngưng, a SEA Games bronze medalist. spent 1hr 30.01min for the event and finished number 60, among 63 walkers who completed the race. Eleven athletes could not finish the tournament because of technical errors or their being tired. — VNS