Asian Para Games

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese athletes brought home three gold medals at the Asian Para Games 2018, in Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday.

Nguyễn Bình An snatched a gold medal in the men’s powerlifting 54kg category.

Asian defending champion and world silver medallist An lifted 178kg in the third attempt to triumph in this division. The silver medal went to David Degtyarev of Kazakhstan with 157kg and Ali Al-Darraji of Iraq took bronze medal with 143kg.

“I am very glad to bring the country a gold medal. I thank my training board very much to help me have the good achievements,” said An.

“My next goal is to practise hard to have a high result at the world powerlifting championship next year,” An added.

In the women’s powerlifting 50kg, Đặng Thị Linh Phượng beat strong rivals to earn gold medal.

Phượng lifted 103kg, leaving behind runner-up Sakina Khatun of India by 19kg. At the Rio Paralympics 2016, Phượng won bronze in the same category with a lift of 102kg.

“Today, I competed very comfortable thanks to my coaches’ suitable tactics. I thank everyone,” said Phượng.

Nguyễn Bình An (middle) celebrates winning a gold medal in the men’s powerlifting 54kg category of the Asian Para Games on Monday. — VNA/VNS Photo

Monday also saw swimmer Võ Thanh Tùng take gold in the men’s 50m backstroke S5 in a time of 38.50secs.

Today, Tùng will compete in five more categories including 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 200 medley and 200m freestyle.

Earlier, swimmer Nguyễn Thành Trung brought home the first gold medal in the men’s SB4 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:48.91 on Sunday.

“I am really proud of this moment. I hope this medal will be an encouragement as well as a four-leaf clover to the Việt Nam team at this year’s event. In comparison to four years ago, this year is such a huge step forward, a true blessing to me. I want to thank my coaches for helping me overcome the hurdles in life and training process,” said Trung.  

Việt Nam now have four golds, one silver and five bronzes to rank seventh in the medal tally. China lead with 34 golds, 15 silvers and 17 bronzes, followed by South Korea with 14 golds, eight silvers and six bronzes. — VNS