Olympics

Hoàng Thị Duyên is to represent Việt Nam at the Tokyo Olympics. Photo baomoi.com

HÀ NỘI — Hoàng Thị Duyên has been chosen as Việt Nam's female weightlifter for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Three Vietnamese lifters qualified for the Games but one slot for a female competitor was stripped as a punishment from the International Weightlifting Federation and the International Testing Agency for doping violations in recent years.

The Việt Nam Weightlifting Federation had to choose between Duyên (women’s 59kg) and Vương Thị Huyền (women’s 49kg), who are both SEA Games champions and have reached many medals from international competitions.

According to Đỗ Đình Kháng, general secretary of the Việt Nam Weightlifting and Body Building Federation, Duyên was picked based due to her better overall results and current performance.

Kháng said to encourage athletes, the federation will present a bonus of VNĐ50 million (US$2,200) for a gold medallist and VNĐ40 million and VNĐ30 million for silver and bronze medal holders, respectively.

Việt Nam's best Olympic weightlifting result was a silver by Hoàng Anh Tuấn in the men's 56kg class at the 2008 Games in Beijing. VNS