Taekwondo

Trương Thị Kim Tuyền of Việt Nam is on the top podium of the women's 49kg discipline at the Asian Taekwondo Championship in Lebanon. VNS Photo Vũ Xuân Thành

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam won one gold and one silver medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championship which closed in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday.

Trương Thị Kim Tuyền won gold in the women's 49kg category. The No 1 seed defeated No 2 Mannopova Madinabonu of Uzbekistan 25-24 in the final.

It was Tuyền's second Asian title in a row after her first in the 46kg class three year ago held in Việt Nam. She is the first Vietnamese fighter to have won the continental competition. Madinabonu also took part in that event and grabbed a bronze.

Tuyền received a bye in the first round. She beat Munisa Oimatova of Tajikistan, No 9 seed, in the quarter-finals and No 5 Hung Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals. Hung and Tuyền will have a chance to fight again next month as both have qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo. 

On Wednesday, Nguyễn Thị Ánh Tuyết pocketed a silver in the women's 57kg class. The unseeded player shocked No 4 Laetitia Aoun of the hosts 12-0 in the quarter-finals before beating No 1 Chen Yu-Chuang of Chinese Taipei 5-4 in the last four. Chen previously knocked Tuyết out of an Olympic qualification tournament last month. 

Tuyết however fell 28-11 to No 3 Kim Yu-jin of South Korea in the final.

Hồ Thị Kim Ngân, who was seeded No 4 in the women's 53kg pool, had an unsuccessful event as she was eliminated in the first round by Ghazal Soltani of Iran. 

The Asian championship, which was on June 14-18, lured nearly 340 athletes from 28 countries and territories competing in 16 pools for both men and women. 

Vietnamese players will fly to Kazakhstan to continue their training until July 10 when Tuyền and her coach Kim Ki-tae take part in the Tokyo Games. VNS