Vietnamese marksman Hoàng Xuân Vinh competes in the men’s 10m air pistol at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics today. — AFP/VNA Photo

Olympics

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese marksman Hoàng Xuân Vinh failed to defend his Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10m air pistol at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday, but there were big wins in the boxing ring and on the badminton court for Vietnamese athletes.

Vinh was ousted from the qualifying round of the men’s 10m pistol category after scoring just 573 points to rank 22nd, not enough to progress.

Five years ago, he won the country's first ever Olympic gold in the 10m air pistol at the Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil. He also won a silver in the men’s 50m pistol.

"I tried my best but my result was not as expected," he said. "Today's opponents were all very strong. I have also learned a lot from this world's biggest sport event." 

The gold medal in this event belonged to Javad Faroughi of Iran with 244.8 points. While Damir Mikec of Serbia and Pang Wei of China took silver and bronze medal, respectively.

The 46-year-old marksman didn’t have much time to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics after receiving his ticket to Tokyo in early July. He was nominated by the Việt Nam Shooting Federation to compete in the Games after the International Olympic Committee offered a slot to Việt Nam in the men's 10m air pistol category.

Nguyễn Thị Nhung, head coach of Vietnamese national shooting team, added: “The Olympics is always a very fierce event, as evidenced by the fact that today, the South Korean legendary marksman Jin Jongoh couldn’t reach the final. Four-time Olympics gold medallist Jongoh only ranked 15th with 576 points. Maybe the problem is due to psychological stress.

“In fact, the number of points to enter the top 8 finalists this year is not high, 578 points. It was clearly a bad result as he didn’t reach the final but I think he tried his best.”

In gymnastics, two Vietnamese gymnasts also failed in the qualification.

Đinh Phương Thành gained 11.833 points to rank 43rd out of 45 athletes in the men’s parallel bars. While Lê Thanh Tùng gained 13.483 points,  ranking 11th out of 12 athletes in the men’s vault. In horizontal bar, Tùng gained 11.166 points to rank 30th out of 47 athletes.

In taekwondo, Trương Thị Kim Tuyền lost to Abishag Semberg of Israel 1-22. Earlier Tuyền had beaten Canadian Yong Yvette 19-5 in the first round.

A screenshot of the fight between boxer Nguyễn Văn Đương (left) and Aliyev Tayfur of Azerbaijan in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

But there was a big win in the boxing ring.

Featherweight Nguyễn Văn Đương told Việt Nam News in an exclusive interview last week that when he gets in the ring he will ‘give it his all’.

That’s exactly what the 25-year-old did in his opening bout against Tayfur Aliyez of Azerbajan.

From the sound of the first bell, both fighters appeared cagey in the early stages however it was the man in blue from Azerbajan who seemed to edge proceedings.

But as the clock ticked to the end of the first round, Đương caught Aliyez with a good right, putting his opponent on the canvas. Although he was quick to his feet, he was given a mandatory standing count.

Boxer Nguyễn Văn Đương celebrates after beating Aliyev Tayfur of Azerbaijan.

Đương came out for the second with all-guns blazing and was clearly the better of the two fighters in this round, which was acknowledged by the judges in their scoring.

Both men tired in the third, but Đương by that point had already done enough to secure victory by a split decision. He will now face Erdenebat Tsendbaatar of Mongolia on July 28.— VNS